Beatrijs, a middle Dutch legend;

$B 20"i ft^^

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/beatrijsmiddleduOObarnrich

PUBLICATIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL

SOCIETY

III

BEATEIJS

•A MIDDLE DUTCH LEGEND-

EDITED FROM THE ONLY EXISTING MANUSCRIPT

IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT THE HAGUE

WITH A GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION, NOTES

AND A GLOSSARY

BY

A. J. BARNOUW

LECTURER IN ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF LEIDEN

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON Amen Corner E C • EDINBURGH • NEW YORK
TORONTO . MELBOURNE • BOMBAY

OXFOED UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY

HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A.

PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY

By

PREFACE

This book would not have been prepared without the friendly
suggestion and encouragement of Dr. W. A. Craigie, President of
the Philological Society. Students of the English language are
indebted to him for his interest in those Teutonic languages
which, by their closer relationship to the Anglo-Saxon tongue,
are more likely than High German to increase our knowledge of
the history of the English language. If this concise manual of
Middle Dutch may prove a useful contribution to that comparative
study of which Dr. Craigie is the chief promoter, I shall consider
myself amply rewarded for my labours.

Eeaders will find little difficulty in consulting the book, so that
directions for its use seem superfluous. I have not been sparing in
cross-references, which will prove helpful to beginners. All the
examples given in the grammar have been carefully chosen from
the text of the Beatrijs. For the meanings of the words quoted
the reader may consult the glossary at the end of the volume,
and from this glossary he is referred back to the paragraphs in the
grammar which give him information concerning the phonetic
form and the inflexion of the word in question.

The text of the poem as printed is a faithful reproduction of
the manuscript, except that the arbitrary employment of v and ti
by the mediaeval scribe has been replaced by the systematic use
of V for the consonant and of u for the vowel sound. Abbrevia-
tions have been expanded throughout ; to indicate them by italics
seemed a needless precision, as the book is primarily intended
as a first introduction to the study of Middle Dutch, and does not
claim to give anything more than a readable text as a specimen
of the language. The use of italics seemed, however, unavoidable
in the case of manuscript oc, the e of which, for the reader's

442944

iv PKEFACE

benefit, has been replaced throughout by o where o, not ud^ is the
sound intended (cf. § 8).

For kindly allowing me to consult the manuscript of the
Beatrijs I am under obligation to Dr. N. van Wijk, until recently
Keeper of the Manuscripts at the Koyal Library, The Hague.
And my final thanks are again due to my friend Dr. Craigie, who
took upon himself the task of marking the Middle Dutch words
in my manuscript for the compositor and of reading the proof-
sheets. I have reason to say in the words of the poet, 'selke
minne hetic ghetrouwe '.

The Hague, March 1914.

'iT

CONTENTS

i PAGE

A GRAMMAR OF MIDDLE DUTCH.

Introductory Remarks, §§1-5 1

Stress, §6 3

Vowels, §§ 7-33.

Spelling, §8 ..........4

Shoit Votcels, §§ 9-19 5

The MDu. development of Prim. Gmc. short vowels, § 9.
Lengthening, §§ 10-11. I- mutation, §§ 12-14. Influence of r,
§§15-16. Influence of 1, § 17. Influence of n,§ 18. Influence
of w, § 19.

Long Vowels, §§ 20-22 10

The long vowels of Prim. Gmc, § 20. Their MDu. develop-
ment, § 21. Shortening, § 22.

Diphthongs, §§ 23-26 11

The MDu. development of Prim. Gmc. diphthongs, § 23.
MDu. ie from heterosyllabic e/i—o/a, § 24. The long diph-
thongs ai, 6i, oei, au, eu, ieu, § 25. MDu. auw- and ouw-,
§26.

Vowels in Weak Syllables, §§ 27-33 13

Consonants, §§ 34-48.

Prim. Gmc. consonants, § 34. West Gmc. consonants, § 35 . 16

Middle Dutch Consonant Changes, §§ 36-48 16

Unvoicing of voiced conss., § 36. Voiceless stops, §§ 37-38.
Voiced stops, §§ 39-40. Voiceless open conss., §§ 41-42.
Grammatical change, § 43. -cht<ft, § 44. Voiced open
conss., § 45. Nasals, § 46. Liquids, § 47. Semi-vowels, § 48.

vi CONTENTS

Accidence.

PAGE

Nouns, §§ 49-60.

The Strong Declension, §§ 50-54 22

Endings, § 50. Syncope, § 51. Neuter monosyllabic nouns
without a plural ending, § 52. Neuter monosyllabic nouns
with a plural in ■er(e), § 53. Nouns of relationship, § 54.

The Weak Declension, §§ 55-57 . . . . . . .24

Endings, § 55. Fusion of Gmc. o- and jo-stems with the
weak declension, § 56. Fusion of strong and weak plurals,
§ 57.

6?mc?er, §§ 58-59 25

Proper Names, § 60 . . .26

Adjectives, §§ 61-69 26

Fusion of Prim. Gmc. a-(ja-), i-, and u-stems, § 61. Strong
and weak declensions, § 62. Endings, § 63. The ending -ere,
§ 64. Employment of strong and weak forms, § 65. The post-
positive adjective, § 66. Adjectives used as nouns, § 67.

The Comparison of Adjectives, §§ 68-69 28

Pronouns, §§ 70-79 29

Personal, §§ 70-71 . . . ... . . .29

Reflexive, § 72 30

Possessive, § 73 30

Demonstrative, §§ 74-76 .30

The simple dem. pron. die, dat, § 74. The compound dem.
pron. dese, dit, § 75. ghene, gone, § 76.

Interrogative, ^11 31

Relative, ^1^ 32

Indefinite, § 79 . . . . . . . . . .32

{a) Een ; (6) ander ; (c) elc, sulc, enech, somech, menech
{oidjj.)', [d) menech {noun); (e) som(e) ; (/) al ; (g) vele ;
(h) (n)iemen ; (i) (njiet ; {k) men.

Numerals, § 80 . . 34

CONTENTS vii

PAGE

Verbs, §§ 81-107.

General Remarks, § 81. Endings of the present tense, § 82.
Endings of the preterite, § 83 35

Strong Verbs, §§ 84-92 37

Class I, § 85. Class II, § 86. Class III, § 87. Class IV,
§88. Class V, §89. Class VI, § 90. Class VII, §§ 91-92.

Weak Verbfi 42

Fusion of the three weak classes of Prim. Gmc. into one
type, § 93. Alternation of single and double conss. closing the
verbal stem, § 94. The weak preterite, §§ 95-96. Irregular
preterites, § 97.

Minor Groups . 44

Preterite-Presents, § 98. Class I, weten, § 99. Class II,
doghen, § 100. Class III, onnen, dorren, dorven, connen,
§ 101. Class IV, sullen, § 102. Class V, moghen, § 103.
Class VI, moeten, § 104. doen, § 105. The substantive verb,
§106. willen,§107.

BEATRIJS 47

Notes 74

Glossary 79

BOOKS OP REFERENCE

Middelnederlandsch Woordenhoek, van wijlen Dr. E. Verwijs en Dr. J.
Verdam, vols. I-VIII, 1885-1914.

Middelnederlandsch Handwoordenboeh, bewerkt door J. Verdam, 1911.

Franck's Etymologisch Woordenboeh der Nederlandsche Taal. Tweede
druk, door Dr. N. van Wijk, 1910-12.

Middelnederiandsche Spraakkunst, door Dr. W. L. van Helten, 1887.

MHtelniederldndische Grammatik, von Johannes Franck. Zweite Auflage,
1910.

Middelnederiandsche Spraakkunst. Syntaxis door Dr. F. A. Stoett. Tweede
geheel omgewerkte druk.

A GRAMMAR OF MIDDLE DUTCH

1. It is in English alone that the mediaeval name of the
Netherlandish language survives. The Dutch themselves have
rejected it because of its ambiguity. For Dutch, as the name of
the language spoken in the Low Countries, is a restriction of its
original meaning. In the Middle Ages the name included all
the dialects of Germany as well. The word is derived from an
old Germanic noun, Gothic piuda, Old English peod, Middle
Dutch diet, meaning * people ', ' nation \ and was used to denote
the vernacular as distinguished from Latin, the language of the
Church. It could, therefore, be applied to any particular dialect
of Continental West Germanic, Frisian alone excepted. Not until
the rise of the Dutch Kepublic in the seventeenth century did
f;he language of the Netherlands assume a separate name, that
of Hollandish (Hollandsch), which originally designated the dialect
of the most powerful of the United Provinces, the name of Dutch
{Duitsch) being thenceforward restricted to the German language.

2. Although in the Middle Ages the Dutch language shared its
name with the vernacular of Germany, it yet may claim an
independent position as the vehicle of a flourishing literature,
^vhich has little in common with the contemporary literature of
Germany. This mediaeval literature employs a language com-
pounded of the dialects of Flanders and Brabant, then the most
prosperous and important provinces of the Low Countries. Even
authors who were natives of other parts, such as the Hollander
Melis Stoke, the writer of a rhymed chronicle of the Counts
of Holland, expressed themselves in this composite Southern
idiom, though each added to the literary language from the store
of his native dialect.

3. The aim of the present introduction must, consequently, be
to give a survey of the grammatical structure of this literary
Middle Dutch, the written /cotvi} of that period which may be
reckoned to extend from the middle of the twelfth to the middle
of the sixteenth century. The term Middle Dutch implies the

1466-3 TJ

I

?;••. \ /::.:: ; BEATRIJS

;e»i9teij(ie.of.an pl(Jer. phase of the language, between which and
• U^To^^rh* Dulfch JLt; iferja^ the connecting link. But, unfortunately,
this Old Dutch period, corresponding in time to Old English
as Middle Dutch does to Middle English, is represented by one
document only, a tenth-century version of a few psalms, a scanty
remnant of an age which in England saw the rise of a flourishing
prose literature.

4. For the English student who has a working knowledge
of Old and Middle English there is no urgent need to study this
fragmentary psalter by way of introduction to the language of the
subsequent period. The Old and Middle English forms will prove
equally useful to him in explaining those of Middle Dutch. For
the two languages are closely related : Old Dutch, otherwise called
Old Low Franconian, is a dialect of the West Germanic branch of
the Teutonic family of languages, which also includes Old High
German, Old Saxon, Old Frisian, and Old English.

5. The bulk of literary Middle Dutch is essentially Franconiai
(more precisely West Franconian, whereas the language of the
Old Dutch psalter is East Franconian), with an admixture o\
Frisian and Saxon, the two other West Germanic dialects whicl
were spoken in the non-Franconian parts of the Low Countries-
Frisian in the North and all along the sea-coast as far south as th<
Flemish border, Saxon in the eastern provinces of Drente, Overijsel, ,
and the County of Zutfen. Foreign influences have not affected i
the Germanic character of the language. Early Latin loans .J
borrowed in or before the Old Dutch period, have been naturalizecjl
and are in no way distinguishable from native words. French 1
borrowings, on the other hand, are easDy recognized as such bj j
their stress falling on the final syllable (§ 6). French sounds
were, as a rule, assimilated to the vowels and consonants of the
vernacular, so that the Germanic phonology of Middle Dutch
was neither changed nor enriched by these foreign adoptions.
Exceptional un-Dutch sounds are the tj in chierheit and the dg in
vergier, Geronde, Gisemast (cf. § 44).

Early Latin loan-words: abt (< ahhdtem, § 6), clooster
(< claustrum, § 23), monnic, nonne, mettine (< (hora)
mat{u)tina, §§ 6, 12), kerke (§ 15), cruce, engel, duvel (§ 23,
n. 1), outaer (§§ 6, 17), mure, strata, poort (§ 16), venster
(§ 6), keyser, paert (§ 6), wijn, spise (< spesa < spensa, § 20),
pine {<pena, § 20), wile (< velum, § 20), side (< seda, § 20),
brief (< hreve, § 20), dichten, pont.

i

GKAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION

Stress

e. Dutch, as a member of the Germanic group of languages,
lays the principal stress on the stem syllable, which in simple
words is always the initial syllable. In compound words the
accentuation in primitive Germanic varied according to the nature
of the composition, nominal compounds (noun + noun, or particle +
noun) being stressed on the first element, verbal ones (particle +
verb) on the second.

noun + noun : a'vont-stont, e*rt-rike, jo*nc-here, clo'c-
seel, li'c-hame (§ 32), me-tten-stonde, &c.

particle + noun ; a*nt-wort, OT-conde, o*r-lof, oT-deel,
wa'n-hope, we*der-moet, o*n-reeht, &c.

particle + verb : onder-vi*nden, onder-cu'ssen, and all
verbs with the prefixes be-, ghe-, ont-, ver-.

Verbs derived from nominal compounds retain the accent of the
noun, as a'nt-worden, oTconden.

Nouns with the prefixes be-, ghe-, and ver- have their stress
on the second element. The stress of adjectives with the prefix
on- fluctuates just as in Middle English (cf. Morsbach, ME.Gramm.,
§ 24). The sufl&x -inne (Gmc. *'injo-, OE. -en) is always stressed,
owing to a tendency to emphasize the distinction between the
male and the female: e.g. godi'une (OE. gy'den), keyseri'nne,
costeri'nne, vriendi'nne.

After the Primitive Germanic period a new kind of compound
verbs arose in each of the West Germanic languages. These
might be called semi-compounds, as either element maintains an
independent position in the sentence. The first element has the
principal accent and is separable from the verb of which it forms
a part. Such are the verbs with the prefixes af-, ane-, mede-,
neder-, op-, toe-, ute-, voren-.

Note, ophe'ffen (1. 6) has the stress on the stem of the
vex'b, as appears from the particle being inseparable from the
stem. If it belonged to the semi-compounds, the p.p. would
be opgheheven (cf. § 83).

Early Latin loan-words adopted the Germanic accentuation :

abt < abhd'temj do'rmter < dormito'ritmi, me'ttine <
mat{u)ti'naj outer < dltd-re, venster < fenestra, paert <^ant-
vere'dm,

b2

4 BEATRIJS

French borrowings retained their foreign accent :

ahdi'sse, dbij't, almonie're, absolve' r en, conforte'ren, aventwrCf
henedi'en, eglentie'r, fonteyne, formij'n, foree'st, heytij'f, confuws,
cordewae'n, mira'cle, natwre, orloy, orname'nt, jpenite'ncie, pre-
tioo's, rossi'de, sacristie', saluwt, termij-n, caproe'tij perdoe'rif
sermoe'rij vysioe'n.

Latin words adopted after the Old Dutch period were not able
to shift their accent on to the first syllable :
carita'te, religioo'n.

VOWELS

7. The vocalism of Middle Dutch consisted of —

(1) Short vowels : a, e, i, 9, o, u, a.

(2) Long vowels : a, e, e, i, 6, o, u, 6.

(3) Short diphthongs (with a short first element) :

el, ou, ie, oe.

(4) Long diphthongs :

ai, oi, oei, au, eu, ieu.
In a, originally long a and lengthened S, have coalesced, e and
6, the lengthenings of Germanic e, i and 0, u must have been
slightly different in sound from the originally long e and 6, as the
poet of the Beatrijs never rhymes e + e, 6 + 6. Before -r, how-
ever, the latter pair seem to have sounded alike to him :

11. 481-2 ghehoort (o) + voort (6).
11. 545-6 ghehoort (o) + woort (6).
11. 723-4 horen + te voren.
11. 959-60 hoort + versmoort.
11. 975-6 hoorde + worde.

ie and oe were on their way to become monophthongs (i and u ^),
which they actually were in the combinations ieu and oei, and
before r.'^ A complete coalescence of ie with i never took place,
as ie in Modern Dutch has become i, and i has been diphthongized
to ei, except before r.

8. Spelling. Vowel length is hardly ever indicated in open
syllables, as short quantity never occurred in that position, all
originally short vowels having been lengthened in open syllables.
There are two ways of indicating length in closed syllables, either
by doubling the vowel symbol, or by an additional e. The former

1 Probably a lower variety of u, between u and 5.

2 Hence such spellings as mier < mire < mijnre (1. 630).

¥

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 5

practice is the usual one in the case of e, i and ii, i being written
ij to avoid confusion of 11 with u ; the latter method is used for
a and o, written ae and oe. There is no reason to alter this
system, except in the case of oe, which also stands for the diph-
thong ua and for 6. In the present edition, therefore, oo is every-
where substituted for the oe of the manuscript, where 6 and o
from Gmc. au is meant. Such seeming homonyms as bloet
(pron. blot, OE. Meat), 11. 262, 486, 935, and bloet (pron. hludt, OE.
Udd), 1. 712, as vroe (pron. vro)^ 11. 830, 899, and vroe (pron. vrud)^
11. 67, 434, loach (pret. oilieghen), 1. 591, and loech (pret. oilachen),
1. 274, are thereby differentiated in spelling in accordance with
their different pronunciation. The diphthong ua is sometimes
spelt ue, probably a traditional spelling reflecting an older stage
of its development from Gmc. o. But this same digraph may
stand for u. In 1. 140 both sounds occur in the same spelling :
tsuete (pron. tsudtd) metten sueren (pron. zitrdn). The sound 6 is
not represented by a special symbol. Its usual spelling is o in
open syllables and oe in closed ones (cf. § 14).

The quantity of the first elements of diphthongs is generally
left unindicated, au being more usual than aeu, and eu being
preferred to eeu. 1 as the first or second element of diphthongs
is often spelt y.

Short Vowels

9. The short vowels of Primitive Germanic were a, e, % o, u.
Germanic u occurred only before a nasal + consonant and before an
u, i, or j in the next syllable. The Middle Dutch development of
these vowels varies according to their position in closed or open
syllables. In closed syllables they retained their Germanic
quality, with the sole exception of Uj unless the influence of
surrounding sounds disturbed their stability (cf. §§ 12-19).
Germanic u, if not modified by i-mutation (§ 13), was lowered to o
(in Modern Dutch a mid back wide round vowel), different in sound
from MDu. and Modern Dutch o < Gmc. o (low back narrow
rounded), and corresponding to u in OE. and ME.

ghesont (OE. gesund\ gront (OE. grund), hongher (OE.
hungor), hont (OE. hund), connen (OE. cimnom\ locht (Gmc.
*luftuz), mont (OE. mup\ on- (OE. un-), onder (OE. imder),
onnen (OE. unnan), ons (OE. €is), or- (OE. or- ; cf. Wright,
O.E.G., § 111, note), pont (OE. pitnd)^ sonder (OE. sundor),
wonden (OE. immdian), wonder (OE. wundor).

6 BEATRIJS

Note. The vowel in the prefix ont- is not from Gmc. w,
but a, and owes its exceptional development to the unaccented
position of the syllable. The corresponding stressed form of
the prefix occurs in the noun a'nt-word (OE. and-wyrde).

10. Lengthening. In open syllables, i.e. before short intei-vocalic
consonants, all Germanic short vowels were lengthened in Middle
Dutch. The lengthening of the two high vowels went along with
lowering, the result being e and 6, affording an exact parallel to
the few cases in which lengthening of ME. i and u took place :

weke (OS. wiJca, ME. weke < OE. wicu), beelde (< OLFr.
hilithe), beven (OE. hifian), hemel (< OLFr. Mmel), lit, plur.
lede, neder (OE. niper), sede (OE. sidu), seder (app. with e
from shortened i, OE. slpor), seker (OE. sicor), seven (< OLFr.
sivon), weduwe (< OLFr. widowa), weten (OE. witan); dore
(OS. duru, ME. dore < OE. duru), ghewone (OE. gewuna),
sone (OE. sunu).

The result of this MDu. lengthening was a complete coalescence
of Gmc. e and i, and of o and u in open syllables. Cases of 6 < w
are scarce, as Gmc. u was mostly followed by an i or j in the next
syllable, so that its lengthening in MDu. is generally modified by
i-mutation (cf. § 14). But e<e and ^<i often occur as rhymes :

11. 587-8 weken (i) + spreken (e), 11. 5-6 bleven (i) +
heven (e < Gmc. a through i-mutation ; cf. § 12).

11. This lengthening is also carried out in originally closed
syllables ending in a short consonant when an enclitic with initial
vowel sound follows. The intervocalic consonant becomes the
initial sound of the enclitic syllable, opening thereby the preceding
syllable :

waest < wd'set < was et

eest < e'set < es et.

bequaemt (1. 404) < lequd'met < hequam et.

traect (1. 809) < trd'Jcet < trac et.

12. 1-Mutation. J-mutation does not play such an important
part in the vocalic development of MDu. as it does in the OE.
vowel system. It modifies only short vowels, and of these a alone
is systematically affected by it, except before ht and WGermanic
long X (spelt c/^), which counteract the mutation :

machtlg (Gmc. ^maxtigas, OE. mihtig), lachen (Goth, hlali-
jan, OE. hliehhan).

^fhi

GKAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION

e «-mutation must have set in before the lengthening in open
syllables was carried out, as lengthened a appears as e, whereas
original a was not modified by it. Mutated a and original e are
identical sounds in MDu., as appears from the rhymes :

11. 225-6 ghebede (e) + stede (a+i).
jg 11. 153-4 begheert (e) + deert (a+i).

A tendency to level cognate words to one unvarying form has
almost entirely obliterated the original alternation of a and e
in inflexion and conjugation. A rare example of both forms
existing side by side is afforded by the inflexion of the noun stat
or stede (cf. § 50, note). The usual process is the extension of the
unmutated form, as in the 2nd and 3rd pers. sing. pres. ind., which
are levelled to the forms of the 1st pers. sing, and the plural :

ic vare (OE. ic fare), du varest (OE. pu fder{e)st), hi varet
(OE. Jiefder(e)/^).

The opposite phenomenon, extension of the mutated forms at
the expense of those with original a, is of rare occurrence. It is
found in ghewelt (OLFr. geivald), which is originally the form
of the gen. and dat. sing. The regular form of the nom. ace. sing,
is ghewout, which actually occurs (cf. ghewouden, vb., 1. 648).
Ghewelt may owe its prevalence to the support of the adj. ghe-
weldech (1. 703).

Exx. bedde (Goth, fca^i, OE. l)§dd), beter, best (Goth.
hati^a, hatists), el (cf. Goth, aljis), elendech (cf. OE. ^l(e)lfn-
disc), elf (OE. delf, pi. ielfe), ende (Goth, andeis), mensche
(Goth. mannisJcs), mes (OE. m^t{e)seax), mettine (MLat. mat-
tina), Pennine (QiE.ppiing), vremde (G^oih.. framapeis), wedde
(Goth, wadi), and a great many verbs of the first weak or -jan-
class (cf. § 93).

With subsequent lengthening : beke (OE. hgce), deren
(OE. dorian), menech (OE. manig, m^nig), heven (p.p. oiheffen),
ghescepen (p.p. of sceppen).

Note, bat (OE. hgt) is probably based upon Gmc. *hats,
whereas OE. h^t < Gmc. %atiz (Goth, hatis).

13. Gmc. 0, MDu. g, was not capable of i-mutation, as it was
never followed by an i or j, it being a lowering of Gmc. u when
followed by an a, 6, or e in the next syllable. Gmc. u, MDu. o, is
the only vowel beside a that is affected by it. Where Gmc. u
stood before an i or j of the next syllable, MDu. has u, in Mod.Du.
a mid front narrow rounded vowel, corresponding to OE. «/, ME. ?,
HG.u:

8 BEATKIJS

gheluc (HG. glilck), guldijn (OE. gylden), hulpe (HG.
hulfe), cussen (OE. cyssan, ME. Msse), ghecusten (cf. OE.
cyst, * choice '), luttel (OS. luttil), ruste (Gmc. *rustidn-), sulk
(OS. suUJc), sullen (with the mutated vowel from the subjunc-
tive, OE. scyle)y vuUen (OE. fyllan, ME. fille), wuUen (OE.
wyllen).

Note 1. Dul beside dol may be due to the Gmc. alterna-
tion of dtv- and rf-forms. WuUe (OE. wulle-) is probably-
derived from the adjective wuUen.

Note 2. Exceptional spellings with double u occur in
gheluux (1. 60) and must (1. 569).

The change is counteracted by r + cons., and in Flemish (whence
also in the literary * koins ') before n + cons. , whereas Brabantic has
u in the latter case :

antworden (OE. andwyrdan), gordel (OE. gyrdel).
omme (OE. ymhe), sonde (HG. sunde).
Brabantic : dunken (OE. />yncan).

14. It is difficult to ascertain the quality of the mutated
6 < Gmc. u in open syllables, as the usual spelling is o or oe.
The noun dore may have either 6, corresponding to OE., OS.
duru, or o stands for o, and dore corresponds to the OLFr. forms
duri, OHG. turi. The rhyme dore + hore (11. 795-6) does not
afford a clue, as the pronunciation of hore is not certain (cf. § 15).
Verhoghen (OE. hycgean, Jmgian) rhymes with ghetoghen
(11. 117-18), which points to an o-pronunciation. The same
conclusion is to be drawn from the rhyme voren (OE. /orow) +
scoren (11. 737-8). The spelling doeghet (1. 391) does not prove
a fronted sound (o), as it is also found in 1. 904 (ghedoeghet),
where it can stand for 6 only. Besides, the noun doghet (1. 4),
which has the same vowel as the verb in 1. 391, is spelt with
a single o. All these words have a fronted vowel (mid front round)
in Modern Dutch, spelt eu : deur^ verjieugen, scheuren, dcugt, deugd^
but in view of the rhymes it is not very likely that this pronuncia-
tion must be attributed to the poet of the Beatrijs. The same
remark applies to the vowel in covel and slotel (Mod.Du. Jceuvel^
sleutel), which do not occur as rhymes in our text. We are
probably right in assuming 6 as the correct pronunciation of the
vowel in all these words. An exceptional case is evel (OE. yfeTjj
which never appears as *(weZ, e being evidently the unrounding of
0 (Mod.Du. etivel).

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 9

15. Influence of r, H must have had a strong a-timbre, espe-
cially in Flemish, as e, not only before r + cons., but also before
single r, is changed to a. Our poem, however, the work of a
native of Brabant, has e throughout, except in a few cases with
simultaneous lengthening :

hare < here < hira, vertaren (OE. teran), waerde.

The opposite change of a > e took place before r+lip or back
conss. (cf. § 87, note 2) :

erch (OE. earg), derven (OE. ^earfian), ontfermenisse (cf.
OE. of-earmian), werf (OE. Jiwearf), but arm (adj. 1. 504 and
sb. 1. 935), stare (11. 75, 106).

Note. The alternation of a and e in the suffix -waert
(-wert) is Prim.Gmc. : OE. •w{e)ard, Goth, wairps, OHG.
•wart and -wert.

i became e before r :

kerke (OS. Mrika, HG. Mrche), derde (OE. pridda, cf. § 47).

e became o in worpen, evidently through the combined influence
of to and r. The 6 (o ?) in hore (hore ?) may be due to weakening,
or (if 6 = 6) to dialectal o-mutation, hore going back to earlier
Viero < Viiro, the d.s. fern, and g.pl. of the pers. pron.

16. Before r + cons., short vowels tended to lengthening. The
orthography does not record the long quantity consistently. Our
text has woort (1. 546) beside wort (1. 112), voort (1. 401) beside
vort (1. 911), paerde (1. 413) rhyming with warde (1. 414),
aermoede (1. 425) beside armoede (1. 557), gheerne (1. 98) beside
gherne (1. 143). To judge from the spelling, the long quantity of e
was less distinct than that of a and o. The other short vowels
did not occur in this position (cf. §§ 13, 15).

aert (OE. eard), vaert (OE. Jlerd, Gmc. *far^i-), -waert
(OE. -iveard), scaerlaken (MLat. scarlatum), poort (OE. port),

17. Influence of I. The groups -aid, -alt, -old, -olt became -oud,
-out, the w-glide between the vowel and the I first having rounded
the a, after which the I was absorbed by the new diphthong. The
groups -uld, -ult (whose u = Gmc. u before an i or j of the next
syllable ; cf. § 13) remained intact. Hence MDu. has guldijn
(OE. gylden) beside gout (OE. gold), sculdech (OE. scyldig) beside
scout.

houden (OE. h(e)aldan), out (OE. {e)ald), verbouden (cf.

10 BEATKIJS

OE. h{e)ald), menechfout (OE. manigj{e)ald), outaer (Lat.
altare), ghewouden (OE. wealdan), onbescouden, onver-
gouden (OE. unforgolden), soude (OE. scoUe), hout (OE. holt).

Note. This ^f-timbre of I is also responsible for the round-
ing of e in hulpen < helpen (1. 800).

18. Influence of n. Before w + cons., e (in this position always
^-mutation of a in native words, as Gmc. had i before nasal + cons.)
was raised to i. The spelling reflects the change only occasionally.
Forms with e and with i occur side by side in the same texts.

(be-, ghe-)dinken (OE. J^^ncean, 11. 353, 528), ghehinghen
(< *hangjan, 1. 704), inde (OE. ^nde, 11. 389, 595, 848) beside
ende (1. 12), kinnen (OE. c^nnan, 11. 208, 220, 847), scinden
(OE. scgndan, 1. 309) beside scenden (1. 709), (be)winden (OE.
w§ndan, 1. 310) beside bewenden (1. 146), meswinde (cf. OE.
misw§nde, adj., 1. 480), ellinde (cf. OE. gl{e)l§nde, 1. 390) beside
elendech (1. 441), eovint (11. 577, 746) beside covent (11. 36,
145, 1019).

Note. The original e of twinteeh < '^twentech (OE. twentig)
is not a mutated a, but a late shortening of e before nt (twen-
< tivegen). i is never found in the conj. ende (OE. §nd
beside and).

19. Influence of w. w -\- short front vowel became u between
a point cons, and s :

suster (OS. swester), tusschen ( < Hwisschen),

Long Vowels

20. The long vowels of Primitive Germanic were ^ (Goth, e,
WGmc. a, OWS. ae, Kt-Angl. e), e (Goth, e, WGerm. e, OE. e), %
6, u. The vowels of early Latin loan-words were assimilated to
these Gmc. sounds, Lt. a to WGmc. a, e in open syllables to e, e
to t, 6 to u (MDu. U) :

strate < Lat. (via) strata, brief < Lat. hreve, pine, spise,
side, wile < Lat. pena, spesa (< spensa), seda (< seta < saeta),
velum, ure < Lat. {h)ora.

21. Of these Gmc. vowels ^ alone has preserved its original
quality in MDu. Gmc. se > MDu. a, as in most WGmc. languages,
corresponding to OE. a only before w and g (the voiced back open)
+ back vowel (cf. Wright, 0. E. G., § 120). Gmc. u (OE. u) was
fronted throughout to u, corresponding to OE., ME. u, or to its

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 11

?-mutation OE. y, ME. I. Gmc. e and o were diphthongized into
td and U9 (cf. § 7), corresponding to OE., ME. e and 6 (or its i-muta-
tion e).

Gmc. 96 : laten (OE. Idefan), saghen (11. 174, 292, OE.

satvon), laghen (1. 851, OE. lagon), saen (OE. sona, with 6

before nasal ; cf. Wright, O.E.G., § 121), wanen (OE. wenan).

Gmc. e : hier (OE. Mr), sciere (< *sJceri-, OHG. scero), die.

Gmc. ^: lijf (OE. ^^/), wijf (OE. ^<;^/'), liden (OE. UMn).

Gmc. 0 : boec (OE. boc), soeken (OE. secean), grueten

(1. 535, cf. § 8, OE. gretan), soete, suete (1. '140, OE. swete),

Gmc. u : huns (OE. hus), suur (OE. si'ir), buten (OE. hutan),
bruut (OE. hr^d), luden (OE. hlydan), suver (OE. sj(/re).

Note, ververen (1. 257) with i-mutation of a < Gmc. ^ is
a Brabantism.

22. Long vowels are sometimes reduced in quantity before con-
sonant groups, but the phonetic process is often crossed by cognate
forms with the original long vowel. The group -cht shortens
throughout :

ele (OE. Mc, < Gmc. *ain-UJca-), lichame (OE. Uc-hpma),
(n)emme(e)r (< *eo-mer), duchten (if related to Goth. J>uhtus,
' conscience '), gherochte ( < *garojfti, a derivate of ' roepen \
OE. hr&pan), suchten (OHG. sUftmi), ghi wet (§§ 28, 99).

Note. No shortening has taken place in ghenuechte,
because the cht group in this word is of a later date than the
shortening, it having arisen by syncope from -nogiSa- (OHG.
ginuogida). The short i in wit (OE. hwH) has not been
explained satisfactorily.

Diphthongs

23. The Primitive Germanic diphthongs were ai (OE. a), au
(OE. ea), eu (OE. eo), iu (OE. w, OWS. u). Of these the two first
were smoothed to e and o, and eu and m coalesced in ie. The
dialects of Limburg and Holland kept eu and iu apart as ie and i1.
e < Gmc. ai alternates with ei, though never before x (ch), w, r,
and at the end of a word, in which positions OLFr. had e already.
The conditions on which the alternation depends are not clear.
Closed syllables seem to favour e, open ones ei.

Before Gmc. x, u\ r, and final, (ver)lenen (OS. lehnon < Gmc.
Haix^n-), see (Goth, saitvs), eer (Goth, airis, OE. ^r), keren
(< *7cair- or Jcai^-), meer (Goth, maisa, OE. mard), ere (OE.
ar), wee (OE. tva), twee (OE. ttva).

12 BEATKIJS

c in closed syllables, een (OE. an), ghemeen (OE. gemxne),
heet (OE. hat), cleet (OE. claj^), leet (11. 45, 426, 497, 625,
OE. laj>) beside leit (1. 666), ordeel (OE. or-dal), seel (in
clocseel, OE. sal), vleesch(0E.^5esc), ween (cf. OE. tvdnian),
ghesceet (OE. gescdd), weet (OE. tvat).

ei in open syllables, beide (ME. hgthe), beiden (OLFr. heidan),
deilen (OE. ddelan), gheleide (cf. OE. geldedan), ghereide
(OE. gerad), ghereiden (OE. gerdedan), heylech (OE. halig),
heymelike, keyser(inne), cleine (11. 1, 1034, OE. cldene),
beside clene (11. 55, 854), leiden (OE. Idedan), reyne (Goth.
hrains).

e in open syllables, ghemene (OE. gemdene), beten (OE.
haetan), heten (OE. hdtan), menen (OE. maenan), sceden
(OE. sc{e)adan), vrese (OLFr. freisa), wese (OLFr. weiso),
wenen (OE. tvanian).

0 < au. bloot (OE. bleat), boom (OE. Mam), broot (OE. bread),
doot (OE. deaj>), doot (OE. dead), doghen (OE. (ge)diegan),
droghen (with o<au, cf. the rhyme drogheden -\- soghede,
11. 491-2), groot (OE. great), hooft (OE. heafod), hone (cf.
OE. Man), horen (OE. Jiieran, Goth, hausjan), clooster (Lat.
daustrum), copen (OE. ceapian), loon (OE. lean), loos (OE.
leas), lopen (OE. hleapan), noot (OE. nead), ooe (OE. eac),
oost (OE. east), oot- (OE. ea/-), oghe (OE. eage), root (OE.
read), soghen, toghen (Goth, at-augjan), troost (ON. traust).

ie<eu, bier (OE. beor), bedrieghen, dief (OE. /eo/), dienen
(Gmc. *J^eunon< *J?etvanon, cf. OE. J^eowian), ghebieden
(OE. gebeodan), cnielen (OE. cneowlian), lief (OE. leof),
lieghen (OE. leogan), siec (OE. seoc), verdriet (cf. OE.
J>reotan), verkiesen (OE. ceosan), verliesen (OE. forleosan).

ie< iu. diere (OE. deore, dure), liede (OE. Uode, leode).

Note 1. Duvel (11. 65, 704), however, has u. The form
dievel is rare in the written ' koine '.

Note 2. lerst (11. 95, 316, 710 ; OE. merest) beside eer
(OE. ^r) may be due to a Prim. Gmc. alternation *%risto
beside "^airiz.

24. Heterosyllabic e/i — o/a gave also ie :

sien<*se/iaw/, ghescien < *-sZ;e/iaw, tien <^teulian, twien
<*twihan (OE. seon, gesceon, teon, tiveon), vrient < */n-owd
(01^. freond).

The ie in biecht arose from %i-jeehtej *jechte being a derivative
of "^jehan > MDu. ghien = ' to confess '. The group -ege- was con-
tracted to ei : seget > seit.

25. New diphthongs arose from the coalescence of vowels with
an i' or w-glide which developed before a ; or a medial w (cf. § 48).

I

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 13

The long diphthongs ai, oi, oei, au, eu, ieu owe their origin to
this process :

ttj > ctij, spelt ay, aey :

sayen (OE. sawan), mayen (OE. mctwan).
6j > oijj spelt oy :

hoy (cf. Goth. gen. sing, haujis), vervroyen ( < *frawjan),
oej > oeij, spelt oei, oy :

gloyen (OE. glowan).

aW' > auw-f spelt au, aeu :

blau, grau (Gmc. %lawa; *grawa-, from the inflected forms,
for final -tv was dropped after a ; cf. § 48).

ew- > euw-f spelt -ew- :

ewe (Gmc. *aiwi^, Goth. aiwSy OE. ae).
iew- > luw; spelt -iew :

niewe (OE. mwe, neowe, OS. niuwi).

26. From what is stated in the preceding paragraph, the con-
clusion is obvious that the MDu. smoothing of the Gmc. diph-
thongs au and eu does not take place before medial w. The
groups amv' and euw- fell together in MDu. ouw-. The auw-
group includes Gmc. auw-f aww-j and aw- :

Gmc. auw- : (aen)scouwen (Gmc. *sJcauw6jan, OE. sceawian).
Gmc. aw- : gou (Goth, gawi), hou (Goth, hawif hoy being the

regular form of the oblique cases, Goth, haujis ; cf. § 25),

vroude (OHG. frawida).
Gmc. aww- : dou (Gmc. *ffawwa-, OE. deaw).
Gmc. euw- : rouwe (OE. hreow), rouwen (OE. hreowan), ghe-
trouwe (OE. getreowe).

Note. Vrouwe is probably a loan-word from OHG.
vrouwe. The corresponding MDu. form would be *vroye<
Gmc. *fraujon-.

Vowels in Weak Syllables

27. In the inflexional endings no trace is left of the original
Gmc. variety of vocalism, all vowels having been weakened to 9

14 BEATEIJS

(spelt e). In a great many cases d disappears altogether. It is
dropped throughout after vowels, except I and ei :

vaen < *m-aw < *va-}i9n, slaen < *sla{h)9n,
lien, vrie (1. 535), vrien, Marie (1. 536).

28. Syncope of 9 between conss. might take place both before
and after the stress, when the cons, group that arose could
be pronounced without difficulty. Strict rules cannot be given,
as forms with and without syncope occur side by side in the
same texts :

Before the stress : tsamen (1. 408) beside tesamen (1. 259),

bliven (OE. helifan) beside beladen, beletten, belegghen,

maer < *nwaer < neivaer.
After the stress: naect (OE. nacod), hi maect, hooft (OE.

Jieafod), abt (OE. abbod), beside doghet, gheelaghet, onver-

saghet, ghedaghet.

The tendency to syncope is strongest where 9 stands between
s and s, between two point stops, and between a point stop and s :

oii8<*onses (the only possible form of the g.s. masco and
ntr. of the poss. pronoun), onghetroost < onghetroostet, quet <
queddet, ghereide (1. S5) < ghereidde < ghereidede, ghi wont <
ivoudet (§ 107), ghi wet <tvetet (cf. §§ 22, 99), hi vsmt <vant 9t
(et), tfelt, tfensterkijn, &c. (in which t<d9t<dat), hadsi
(1. 913) <haddesi,h.et8<het es, savons, sanders, smenschen,
&c. (in which s<d9S<des).

Note. Even ons es in 1. 821 : den here die ons[es]broe-
der was treated in the same way as onses and became ons.

29. 9 before a stressed vowel, and initial 9, are dropped :

boven < *bd-oven (OS. bi-odan), buten (OS. b{i)utan), dabyt,
dorloy, &c. (in which d- < d9 (de)), tavont, teenen, teren,
torconden, &c. (in which t- < te).

neYeii<*9neven (OE. onefn), weQh<ewech<enwech (OE.

omveg),

30. Of two consecutive syllables with 9, one may be eliminated
when the surrounding consonants facilitate the syncope. The
first 9 is dropped before point conss., as in the superlative suffix
-€ste>-ste, and in the preterite of the weak conjugation -ede>'de.
The 9 of the preposition te when followed by the definite article is
also dropped and the initial d- of the article assimilated to the t of
the preposition, te des, te den becoming tes, ten. Syncope of the

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 15

second d takes place in the ending -enen, as in metten (1. 849)
beside mettenen (1. 195). An agglomeration of three or more weak
syllables is lightened by the syncope of the second of these
syllables :

cussese (1. 284) < cussedese, vorese (1. 1026) < voredese, noe-
mesise (1. 618) < noemedesise, becorese < hecoredese (1. 929).

31. Final 9 is not dropped after a stress syllable. In the di-
syllabic endings -ere, -ele, -ene, -eme the final s disappears, as
a rule : ten clooster (1. 96) beside ten cloostere (1. 186), die slotel
(1. 248) beside die slotele (1. 237), die bitter doot (1. 312). In
words with weak sentence stress, final d was often not sounded,
which gave rise to doublets such as —

ane — an, ave — af, dore — dor, mede — met, neware —
newaer (>m8er), omme — om, onse — ons, tote — tot, ute —
uut, vore — vor.

32. No weakening of the vowel sound takes place —

(1) In the syllable before the stress of French loan-words
(ef. § 6).

(2) In a great many native suffixes, whose secondary stress was
sufficiently strong to prevent the reduction of their vowel
sound to d :

-are (beside -ere, -er), -doom, -ers(s)e, -heit (-hede), -ich
(beside -eeh, which prevails in our text), -i(g)ghe (beside
-e(g)ghe, cf. dieveghe, 1. 708), -ijn (beside -en, cf. selverijn,

I. 323, ijseren, 1. 102), -inghe, -inc, -inne, -kijn, -kine, -lijc
(-lie), -lijn, -line, -loos, -nede, -nesse, -sam, -scap.

(3) In the words avont, viant, armoede, ambocht, outaer,
lichame.

All the syllables mentioned under (2) and (3) may be used as
rhymes, in which case the words are to be read with level stress :

11. 931-2 bringhen + be-dinghen, 11. 305-6 formi-ne-f
gu'ldine.
11. 25-6 dochte + a'mbochte, 11. 233-4 daer + outaer,

II. 205-6 name + lichame.

Note. In niewer <nie-toaer the weakening of the vowel
sound is due to the word being no longer felt as a compound.
Men (pron. mdn) < man through lack of accent.

33. New weak syllables arose by the development of a svara-
bhakti vowel between a liquid and another cons . :

toren (OE. torn), appel (Gmc. *apla-), bitter (Gmc. *bitra-).

16 BEATKIJS

Between a cons, and w an ii developed :

weduwe (OE. tvid{e)we), vervaluen (cf. OE. fealw- in the
inflected forms).

CONSONANTS
34. Primitive Germanic contained the following consonants :

Lip.

Point.

Front and back

Voiceless stops

P

t

h

Voiceless open cons.

f

ps

X

Voiced ,,

d

dz

9

Nasals

m

n

y

Liquids

Ir

Semi-vowels

IV

J

35. Middle Dutch shares the following changes with the other
WGmc. dialects :

(1) 5>& initially, after the lip nasal, and in the gemination ;
otherwise it remained an open cons.

(2) 3^>d in all positions.

(3) Medial z>r; final z was dropped.

(4) All conss. except r were doubled by a following j after short
accented vowels, and the voiceless stops, p, f, Jc, were doubled
under the same conditions before a liquid.

Note. The double spelling of conss. in MDu. orthography
does not always indicate original length of the cons. It often
serves as a means of indicating shortness of the preceding
vowel, as in allene < al-ene, and in sullen (OLFr. sulan), with
the short vowel of the singular of the pres. subj., which was
extended to all the forms of the present tense (§ 13). This
use of the double cons, must be due to the loss of the old
distinction between short and long conss. between two vowels.
Long conss. were also reduced in quantity at the end of a
word.

Middle Dutch Consonant Changes

36. Unvoicing of Voiced Consonants. All voiced conss. were
unvoiced at the end of a syllable. The spelling reflects the
change very accurately. The word God, however, never appears
with 4. In subtijl the b (= p) is spelt in accordance with
the French original. The stem-syllables of weak verbs whose
infinitive ends in -den, 'hhen (§ 35, i), -gen, -sen (= sen), -ven retain

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 17

their voiced conss. when, in consequence of the syncope oi-edode,
these conss. came to close the syllable :

send.Q<send-de (1. 82), diXitw or 6.0 <antword-de (1. 119),
prijsden (pron. -zden, 1. 174), gheloofde (pron. -vde, 1. 159).

Note 1. The frequent alternation of medial -d- and final -t,
as in hand- and hant, vriend- and vrient, gave rise to such
erroneous forms as covende (1. 1019), being the dat. sing, of
covent, the final -t of which is original.

Note 2. Final 4<-d in the 2nd pers. pi. pres. ind. (§82)
appears as -d before enclitic •i<Gmc. *jiz (§ 71).

Stops

37. Voiceless Stops. The voiceless stops of Prim. Gmc. remained
the same in MDu. in nearly all positions. In the group sk, however,
1c was changed to the corresponding open sound in the ' Anlaut ' of
strong syllables. Final, and probably also medial sJoss, although
sc (or sch) is retained in the spelling.

erdsche (1. 390) pron. ertse, mensche (1. 66) pron. mense,

38. Assimilation of h and ^ to a following n and of i? to a
following m took place in in < ikn < ic en, hen < hetn < het en, coman
<coqpman. t(d) is also assimilated to a following I in qualijc<
quaetlijc. t is dropped in the groups nts, fts, and clits: savons<
savonts (1. 562), vinatvL <vintstu (1. 681), h.eGfai8e<Jieeftsise(l. 731),
heefse (1. 884), snachs < snaclits (1. 620). Nach for nacht in the
formula nach ende dach (1. 228) is of course due to the rhyme
with dach.

Note. Initial Jc is spelt k before e and i, and c before conss.
and other vowels. Double Jc is always spelt ck, which is also
used sometimes for medial k after a liquid or nasal, as in
drincken (1. 897).

In the Fr. loan-word pretioos, t stands for ts.

39. Voiced Stops. The voiced stops of MDu. were :
&<Prim. Gmc. t, initially, after m, and in the gemination, as

in hebben ( < *x«^j«*«).

c?<Prim. Gmc. ^in all positions.

g, exclusively after the back nasal.

A new d arose in MDu. by the development of a glide between
I, n, r, and a following r (of. § 64).

kelder (<Lat. cellarium), minder (Goth, minnisa), scoonder
( < scoonre, 1. 192), swaerder (compar. of swaer).

1466-S C

18 BEATEIJS

40. The group mh was assimilated to mm, and the long conso-
nant subsequently reduced in quantity, as in omme (OE. ymbe).
The group yg, which in Mod.Du. has become ^, had not yet
advanced so far in MDu. in all positions. The assimilating
process had evidently affected the group in the middle of a word
between vowels, but the frequent spelling of final -ng as -nc and
of -ngs as -nx seems to prove retention of the stop in MDu. :

dine, lane, ioncfrouwe, vinken (<vinc en, 1. 938), lanx,
anxt (<OLFr.

-nd, on the other hand, remained the same, except that in final
position the d lost its voice. Assimilation of the initial d of the
definite article to the final t and p of prepositions is very frequent :

uter < uut der, opten < op den.

Open Consonants
41. Voiceless Spirants. Gmc. x had, as in all Gmc. languages,
been weakened to a mere breath initially, and was dropped in MDu.
before I, r, n, w, medially between vowels, and between a vowel
and a liquid, and finally after a long-stress vowel :

Initial h : laehen (OE. hliehhan), lopen (OE. Meapan), luden
(OE. hl^dan) ; reyne (Goth, hrains), roepen (OE. hropan),
rouwe (OE. hreow) ; nighen (OE. hnlgan) ; waer (OE.
hwder), weder (OE. Jiwdeper), werf (OE. hwearf), wile (OE.
hwll), wit (OE. JiwU).

Medial h : sien (OS. sehan), tien (Goth, tiuhan), slaen (Goth.
slaJian) ; (be)velen (Goth. filJian, OE. feolan).

Final h : seoe (OE. scoJi), na (OE. ne(a)h).

Initial h was also lost in secondary syllables of compounds, as
in Godaat < Gods hat (1. 354), haeatechede <haestech-hede. After
final X (spelt ch) initial h disappears even in stress syllables :
gheweldechere Kgheweldech here (1. 703). But in liehame (pron.
li'xamd) Gmc. "kx had become x> probably before the weakening of
X to a breath. In hoe (Gmc. *x«^o) the w was dropped before the
rounded back vowel previous to the general weakening of initial
h before w. The grou -cht, though otherwise preserved, became
't in (Ta)iet <(n)eo-wiht, owing to the unaccented position of the
word in the sentence ; OLFr. has already niewet beside niewiht.
Gmc. -xs became MDu. -ss (OE. -x).

ses (OE. siex), vos (OE. fox), wassen (OE. iveaxan).

Note 1. As Gmc. intervocalic x had disappeared in MDu.,^

^

GKAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 19

ch was never doubled in the spelling, as it could stand only
for the geminated x of WGmc, as in lachen (OE. hliehhan).

Note 2. In hoven (1. 626) the poem offers an isolated
instance of the false insertion of h. Or it may be a scribal
error, a case of dittography (cf. note to 1. 20).

42. Of the three remaining voiceless open conss. of the parent
language, / was voiced in MDu. initially and medially, s initially
before w and vowels and medially between vowels, and between
a liquid or nasal and a vowel, and / became d in all positions.
Gmc. / and ^ had, accordingly, coalesced in MDu. (cf. § 35 (2) ),
giving rise to homonyms such as doot, 1. 312 (OE. deaj>), and doot,
11. 219, 423, 936 (OE. dead). The voicing of s does not find its
expression in the spelling ; only a few cases occur in our text
where i8 is spelt instead of s :

zeder, 1. 430; zee, 1. 660; zide, 1. 850; ziele, 1. 388;
zondersse, 1. 762 ; zwaer, 1. 844.

Voiceless s was, between vowels, differentiated from 0 by being
written double, as in verloossen (1. 524), but in couse (1. 277) the
voicelessness of the s is left unindicated (<Med. Lat. calcia or
NFr. cauce). But MDu. had no means of distinguishing initial
s from ^, as the latter symbol was seldom used. In onversaghet
(1. 227) the s is voiceless, being assimilated from f5<MHG. 0
{verzagen). French loan-words also retained their voiceless / and 5,
as the MDu. voicing had come to a stop before they were adopted :

cruee, cesseren, feest, fel, fijn, fonteyne, foreest, formijn.

Note, v and z lose their voice initially after the prefix
ont- and the aphetized form of the neuter definite article:
ontfaen (1. 143), tfensterkijn (1. 97), tfelt (1. 449).

^ (§ 45) loses its voice under the same conditions, but the
change is not reflected in the spelling : ontgaen (1. 63).

43. Grammatical Change. The Gmc. alternation of voiceless
and voiced open conss., known by the name of grammatical
change, is entirely effaced in MDu. in the case of Gmc. /— ^ and
/— ^, medial / having coalesced with 5 and final 5 with /, and
J> and ^ having both become d (or t, when final). The Gmc.
alternation of 5 and z survives in MDu. z—r, occurring in a few-
verbal forms :

verkiesen — p.p. vercoren(l. 377), verliesen— p.p. verloren
(1. 957).

c2

20 BEATRIJS

That between Gmc. x ^^^ 7 i^ hardly perceptible in MDu.,
owing to the loss of intervocalic h < Gmc. x •

tien, pret. tooeh (11. 233, 776), p.p. ghetoghen (1. 118).

44. The group -ft became -cht, which subsequently shortened
preceding long vowels (cf. § 22). The change was sometimes
counteracted by the influence of cognate forms with original
/ (v), as in ghifte {gheven), ofte (of). In gheeft (1. 56) and
similar forms of the 3rd pers. pres. ind. the -ft arose from -vet by
syncope, subsequent to the change of -ft > -cht.

achter (OE. defter), gherochte (< Gmc. *girdfti), cracht
(OE. crdeft), suchten (OHGr. sufteon ; cf. OE. seofian), soehte
(OE. softe),

45. Voiced Spirants. The only Gmc. voiced spirant that remained
an open cons, in all positions but one (cf. § 39) was y, spelt gh
before e and i, and g before conss. and other vowels. The gh in
the inflected forms of hooch, as in hooghelike (1. 685), is not
original, Gmc. having x i^ ^^ cases. The voiced sound was
introduced on the analogy of words in which Gmc. medial g
alternated with final ch, as in laech beside laghe ' low '.

MDu. g > j through dissimilation in jeghen (OS. gegin).

Gmc. 5 had remained a voiced open cons, between vowels and
between a liquid and vowel, and had lost its voice in final
position and before s and t :

du heves (1. 673) beside heefsise (1. 731), hovet beside
hooft.

Note. Hoot, with loss of v before d as in ME., is a
Brabantism.

Nasals

46. m and n remained intact in nearly all positions. Final -m of
inflexional endings became -n, except in the monosyllabic pro-
noun hem and in the 1st pers. pres. ind. (ic) bem beside ben.
Occasional spellings such as reine (1. 814), save (1. 456), hebbe
(1. 924), seem to point to an early tendency to drop the final -n of
weak syllables ; cf. also the rhymes drogheden + soghede (11.491-2),
kinde + sinden (11. 747-8), gherochte + mochte[n] (11. 923-4).

Loss of m took place before the voiceless lip open in vijf (Goth.
fimf) and soehte ( < samft, cf. § 43), an exact parallel of the Primitive
Gmc. loss of ff and subsequent compensatory lengthening of the

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 21

preceding vowel before x- It may be that the loss of the n in
doghet (OHO. tugund, Gmc. "^dugunpi-) is also due to the voiceless
spirant that originally followed (OE. diAgup).

n was assimilated to a following r in weak syllables :

ere<eewre, ghevoKgheenre, m.ieT{e)<mijnre.

An isolated case of assimilation of w to a preceding r (a Bra-
bantism) is found in berren (1. 837) < hernen (OE. Idernan),

The assimilation of mn > mm in stemme (OE. stemn) is already
OLFr. Change of the point nasal into the lip nasal by a following
to occurs in maer < n(e)waer. The final -n of doen, originally
doe (cf. OE. pa), is due to the analogy of other pronominal adverbs
such as dan (OE. pgyine). An intrusive -rtr occurs in visenteren
(1. 920), which may be compared to vulgar English milintary.
The n in mordenare (1. 654) < morderare is due to dissimilation.

Liquids

47. I was not subject to any changes except in the groups aid,
alt, old, olt (cf. § 17j. Neither was r changed (a point or uvular
trill), except that it often shifted its position when it stood before
a short vowel followed by a point cons. :

derde (OE. pridda), torsen (OFr. trosser), berren <&emm
< hrennen.

The opposite change took place where r stood between a short
vowel and the group -cht : G-hijsbrecht (OE. Gislbeorht ; cf. Searle,
Onomasticon Anglo-saxonicum, p. 258).

A similar phenomenon is the treatment of enclitic sonant r,
being the reduced form of ere (OS., OHG. iro, OE. Jiiera) and of
daer. This r appears either as -er or as -re ; the latter especially
after vowels and liquids :

comter (1. 40), hebter (1. 266), diere (11. 581, 607), hire
(1. 740), wilre (1. 721).

Semi-vowels

48. w (a lip-teeth initially, bilabial in other positions) was
dropped between ^ and a rounded back vowel (cf. § 41, hoe< *x^o):

so(o) (OE. swd)j soete (OE. swot-).

Final tv became u after a short vowel, with which it formed

22 BEATKIJS

a diphthong. After long vowels final w was dropped, and after
conss. it survived as -a (spelt -e) :

cnie < ^hneu (cf. § 23) < Gmc. *lcnetva-, stro < *strau (cf. § 23)
<Gmc. *strawa; see<*sai (cf. § 23) < Gmc. *saim-, gele<
Gmc. *gelwa- (OE. geolo).

Initial j followed by e or i became g. (spelt gh) :

ghi<*ji^, ghene, ghinder (cf. OE. geondj Goth, jains).

The opposite change of ^ > j is due to dissimilation (§ 45) :
jeghen (OLFr. gegin).

ACCIDENCE

NOUNS

49. The original variety of declensions which the parent lan-
guage had inherited from Indo-Germanic was in MDu. levelled to
two main classes, usually called the strong and the weak declen-
sion. The former includes the original vocalic stems with the
exclusion of the feminine 6- and Jo-stems, and the consonant stems
with the exception of the w-stems. The weak class includes the
0-, jo; and w-stems.

The Strong Declension

50. The inflexional endings of the strong declension are alike
for the three genders, the only exception being the gen. sing.,
which ends in -es inmasc. and ntr. nouns, and in -e in fern, nouns.
These endings are :

Sing. Plur.
Nom. Ace. — -e

Gen. m.n. -{e)s, f. -(e) -e

Dat. -(e) -en

dach (1. 67), daghes (11. 166, 925), daghe (1. 32), daghe
(1. 536), daghen (1. 122).

Words whose n.s. ended in -e have the same form in all cases
except in the g.s. and the d.p. This was the case with original
;a«stems such as sondare, bedde, &c., and with original i- and
w-stems whose stem-syllable was short, such as bake, sone.

GKAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 28

After a long syllable -i and •w(o) had disappeared before the MDu.
period, just as in OE. (cf. Wright, 0. E. G., § 215).

Note. Beside regular stede (OE. st^de) MDu. has also stat
with early loss of the i-suffix on the analogy of fern, i-stems
with long stem-syllable. The latter form, originally due to
the n.a.s., was also extended to the g.d.s. : d.s. stat (11. 164,
449), d.s. stede (11. 183, 226), a.s. stat (1. 166), a.s. stede
(1. 839). The d.s. steden (1. 557) owes its -en to the influence
of the weak declension (cf. § 55).

51. The regularity of this inflexional system is often disturbed
by the MDu. syncope (cf. § 27 ff.). The g.s. -es is always reduced to
-s after a weak end-syllable, as in savons (1. 562), and also after
words in -s, -s(ch) (cf. § 28). The g.s. G-ods (1. 750) is not due to
syncope, as in that case the vowel would be long (cf. § 10). It is
a new formation, the reduced genitive ending -s being afiixed to
the form of the nominative. The dative G<^e is extended to the
accusative (cf. 11. 389, 492). Nouns whose nominative ends in
a consonant often have a dative without -e. The same applies to
the g.s.f. which appears more frequently without than with -e.

uten huus (1. 742), ter weduwen huus (1. 844), enegher
bruut (1. 180).

52. Neuter nouns of one long syllable have a n.a.p. without any
ending, a survival of the OLFr. forms, whose final -o had dis-
appeared after long syllables (cf. § 50). Forms in -e, however,
are equally frequent, except after numerals :

twee paer (1. 271), XII. iaer (1. 92), .V.cpont (1. 181), die
selve woort (1. 546), beside .M. iare (1. 374).

The plurals man (11. 370, 1028) and voet are the regular forms
of the original consonantal inflexion.

53. A group of neuter monosyllables form their plural in -er(e),
a survival of the Germanic stems in -a^, -iz (cf. Wright, 0. E. G.,
§ 419). These words are ey (OE. aeg), hoen ' fowl % runt (rint)
'neat' (OE. hrmr), loof 'leaf (OE. Uaf), been 'bone' (OE. lan\
bert ' board ', blat ' leaf (OE. llded), calf (OE. cealf), kint ' child ',
cleet (OE. claj>), lam (OE. Igmb), rat ' wheel '. The first three
have always -er(e), the others form their plural also in -e :

n.a.p. kindere (11. 478, 868), kinder (11. 408, 432, 453),
d.p. kinderen (1. 585), kinden (11. 573, 877).

24 BEATRIJS .

Note. Diminutives of these neuter nouns form their plural
from the original stem in -r: kindekijn, pi. kinderkine
(L 567).

54. The nouns of relationship in -r, vader, breeder, moeder,
suster, dochter are invariable in the sg. and in the n.a.p. The
g.p. ends in -(e)re, the d.p. in -(e)ren. These forms are normally
developed from the Prim. Gmc. forms and are identical with
those in OE. : stveostor, e. g., is the normal form of the whole of
the sg. and of the n.a.p., whereas the g.p. sweostra, d.p. sweostrum,
correspond to the MDu. endings (-e)re, {-e)ren. But just as in OE.
the original g.s. and n.p. '^fdeder became fded{e)res, fded(e)ras on
analogy with the a-stems, so in MDu. a new g.s. in -ers and a n.a.p.
in -(e)re were formed of vader and breeder, in accordance with the
regular forms of the strong inflexion. The three feminine stems
in -r form a new n.a.p. in -(e)reii, with -en from the weak inflexion.

The Weak Declension

55. The weak declension had lost its original Gmc. endings
throughout, so that the n, which was originally inseparable from
the stem, came to be felt as an inflexional ending. The regular
endings in MDu. are :

Sing. Plur.
Nom. Ace. -e -en

Gen. -en -en

Dat. -e{n) -en

The dative, originally ending in -en, was usually assimilated to
the accusative singular. The final -e of the n.a.d.s. disappears in
such words as jonglier(e) (cf. § 31), which caused them to be
looked upon as strong stems and to be inflected accordingly
(pi. ionghere, 1. 439).

56. The fusion of the Gmc. o- and jo-stems with the weak
declension was brought about by the similarity of most of their
inflexional endings. Their organic endings would have been -e
for the whole of the sg. and for the n.a.p., and -en for the g.d.p.
(OLFr. g.p. -ono, -ano, -eno, d.p. -on, -un). The insufficient distinc-
tion betw^een sg. and pi. led to the extension of the form in -en of
the g.d.p. to the n.a.p., whereby the plural coalesced with the
plural of the weak stems. The form of the g.s. had been assimi-
lated to that of the weak class already in the OLFr. period.

GEAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 25

57. The ending -en proved such a useful distinctive form of the
plural, that it was finally assumed also by the strong declension,
first of all by words ending in an accented vowel, which have
invariably -w, such as scoe, pi. scoen (11. 235, 278, 513, 683, 880).
Another plural suffix was found in -s, which was borrowed from
OFr. and affixed to words in -er from -ere (Goth, -areis), from
which it was extended to words in -er of different origin, such as
keiser ' emperor ', clooster (pi. cloosters, 1. 610).

Note. The -n of scoen, however, proved insufficient to
mark the word as a plural form, as -e, -en, and -s were the
usual distinctives of the plural number. The sg. scoe being
naturally of rare occurrence, the plural scoen, which lacked
the characteristics of the plural, began to be used in its stead,
until in Mod.Du. it supplanted scoe altogether. From this
new sg. scoen a new plural scoene was formed (1. 806) with
the regular ending of the strong declension.

Gender

58. As the weak class contained a large majority of feminine
nouns, owing to its fusion with the o- and jo-stems, the weak -e
came to be looked upon as an especially feminine ending, so that
masc. and ntr. nouns in -e easily assumed a feminine gender :

sede m.f., orconde m.f., herte n.f., oghe n.f., ore n.f.

The suffixes -heide < *-hai9)a- (ntr.), and -heide < *-hai3fz' (fem.),
became mixed and gave rise to a general fluctuation in the gender
of these words. Nouns in -nesse are either fem. or neuter, as in
this suffix Germanic -nassja- (ntr.) and -nassjo- (f.) have coalesced :

na der waerheide (1. 13), al dat scoonheide (1. 184).

59. Words that did not end in -e were, as a natural consequence,
felt to be masculine. They could not so easily be mistaken for
neuter nouns, as these were always distinguishable by the forms
of the definite article and the demonstrative pronoun in the nom.
and ace. sg., whereas the n.s. of the masc. and fem. article and
pronoun were identical. A very rare instance of the transition
from the masc. to neuter gender is afforded by the word lichame
m.n. (OE. Uchama m.), for which the gender of its synonym lijf is
probably responsible.

te ghere noot (1. 138), in groter noot (1. 869), beside minen
noot (1. 220), dorden noot (1. 249) (OE. nied f.).

in alder tijt (1. 243) beside langhen tijt (1. 27), sekeren
tijt (1. 132), ten selven tide (1. 678) (OE. tul f.).

26 BEATEIJS

Proper Names

60. Men's names are inflected as strong stems when they end
in a cons., and as weak stems when they end in a vowel. The
d.s. is often extended to the a.s. : Lazaruse (1. 218). Women's
names have, as a rule, a g.s. in -en, a d.s. in -en or -e, and an a.s.
in -e or -en :

nom. Maria (1. 205), gen. Marien (1. 238), dat. Marien (1. 8),
ace. Maria (1. 1031), Marien.

ADJECTIVES

61. Adjectives in Prim.Gmc. belonged to one of three classes
(1) the a- (ja-) stems, (2) the i-stems, (3) the tf-stems. No trace of
this distinction is left in MDu., except in the form of the n.s.m.
and n., which ends either in a cons, or in weak -e. The latter ending
is organically due to the ja-stems, the i- and w-stems ; the conso-
nantal ending is typical for original a-stems. But even this
distinction is often effaced by analogical new formations, so that
some adjj. have both forms in the n.s.m. and n. : hoghe beside
hooch, traghe beside traech (OE. heah, trctg).

62. Adjectives in MDu. are also declined as strong or weak.
But the original difference between the two classes was greatly
obscured by the tendency to assimilate the endings of the weak
adj. to those of the pronoun by which it was preceded, so that
such forms as van der *sco(o)nen smale, der *quaetsten sonderen were
replaced by van der scoonder smale (1. 192), der quaetster sonderen
(1. 520). The tendency to drop final -n of weak syllables (§ 46)
was also conducive to the coalescence of weak with strong forms.
The only endings of the weak inflexion which were left intact by
this assimilative process were then.s.m.n. and a.s.n., which have
no ending in the strong inflexion and take -e in the weak class.
And even here the distinction does not hold good in all cases,
as, according to § 61, a great many adjj. ended in -e in their
uninflected form. The weak g.s.m. retains its original -en
beside -es.

63. The declension of the MDu. adj. is, accordingly, as follows
(the weak forms are placed between square brackets) :

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 27

Sing.

Masc. Ntr.

Fern.

groot [grote]

grote

grotes [groten]

groter(e),

.(e)re

groten

groter(e),

-(e)re

groten groot [grote]

grote

Flur, M.N.F.

grote

groter(e), -(e)re

groten

grote

64. The ending -ere is usually spelt -re after I, n, /•, as
in aire dogJiet (1. 813), dulre minne (1. 986). This is probably
a spelling for syllabic r. Such, at any rate, must have been its
pronunciation, as otherwise no d would have developed after
the liquid or nasal (cf. § 39), as e. g. in van der seconder smale
(1. 192). After other conss. the usual spelling of the ending is -er :

met starker minnen (11. 75, 106), met vleescheliJcer sonde (1. 70),
van witter siden (1. 281), siere liever moeder (1. 572), in goeder
trouwen (1. 782), in groter noot (1. 869).

' Words in -er drop the ending •{e)r{e) altogether, as in in donJcer
nacJit, ' in the dark night '.

Note. In so groten sondare (1. 686) -en is not an inflexional
ending of groot, but the enclitio article, which after so takes
its place between the uninflected adj. and the noun.

I

65. The weak forms, as far as they were distinguishable from
the strong ones, were used after a determinative pronoun. The
indefinite article een and its negation (ne)gheen were followed by
the strong adj. Possessive pronouns, which had no determinative
meaning, were originally followed by the strong adj., but the
weak forms became gradually more frequent. When the attribu-
tive adj. stands unaccompanied, it takes the strong form, except
before proper names and in the vocative when placed after
its noun. Before the noun in the vocative, usage fluctuates,
although the strong adj. is preferred in this position :

here lieve (1. 215), vrouwe goede (1. 576), but magJiet fijn
(1. 811), vercoren lief {I. Ill), beside vercorne vrient (1. 142),
lieve scone joncJiere (1. 396).

28 BEATKIJS

In predicative use the adj. is invariable. But it seems that adjj.
in this function w^ere apt to be regarded as adverbs, as they often
take -e, which can hardly be the inflexional ending of the adj. : die
nonne was Jiot^esche (1. 19).

66. Post-positive adjj. were, as a rule, not inflected, except
where the inflected form might be of use in rhyming :

in die hoeJce sijn (1. 16), mantele ende caproen groot (1. 169),
herouwennesse also groot (1. 485), enen hoven heet (1. 626), met
lichte soo scone (1. 768), scoen cordeivane, rhyming with ane
(11. 277-8), na der naturen sine, rhyming with -kine (11. 333-4).

When a noun is accompanied by two adjj., and the second of these
is placed after its noun with repetition of the def. article, the post-
positive adj. is inflected. In 1. 465, however, this rule had to
yield to the necessity of rhyming: diescameliJce sonden ende die zwaer.

67. Adjectives that were used as nouns took the weak form
orig But the strong form is equally frequent in MDu. :

st^n lief (1. 99), vercoren lief (1. Ill), lief, leet, tsuete metten
sueren (1. 140).

The Comparison op Adjectives

68. The endings of the comparative and superlative are -er(e),
-re, and (e)st (cf. § 28). A few adjj. form their comparatives and
superlatives from a different root than the positive :

goet beter (adj.), bat, bet (advv.) best

slecht wers (adv.) werst

vele mee, meer (advv.) meest

groot mere meest

clone min(d.)re, minder minst

luttel min (adv.) minst

spade later laatst, lest

Note. The comparative is often replaced by bat (bet) + the
positive.

69. The Declension of the Comparative was originally weak. But
the prevalence of the strong endings in the positive introduced
them also into the comparative. But where the position of
the adj. would require the uninflected form in the positive, the
comparative is always weak. The g.d.s.f. and g.p. are usually spelt
-erre, although the r was doubtless short (cf. § 35, note). The

final -^of the d.m.n.s., a.s.m., and d.p. is mostly dropped.

GKAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION

29

PRONOUNS
70. Personal

(The enclitic forms are placed between square brackets.)

First Person

Second Person

N.

ic, icke

Singular

du

G.
D.A

mijns
mi

dijns
di

N.

wi(e)

Plural

ghi [-i]

G.

onser, ons

uwer, uw(e)s

D.A

ons

Third Person

u

p'

Singular

Masc.

Ntr.

Fern.

N.
G.

D.

A.

hi [-1] het [-(ejt]
syns [-s]

hem(e) [-em] § 46

hem(e), [-eii(e), -ne] het [-(e)t]

si, soe [-se]

haers, hare, haar [-er(e),

-re, -der]
hare, haer, hore [-er(e),

-re, -der]
haer, hare, hore [-se]

1^' Plural

N. si [se]

G. haers, hare, haer [-er(e), -re, -der]

D. hem, hen [-en]

A. hem, hen [-se]

71. The forms du and di when used enclitically assimilate their
d to a preceding t : vinstu < vintst du (1. 681). The plural ghi [-i]
is used as a polite form of address in the singular along with du.
See e. g. the speech of the angel to Beatrijs, 11. 673 if. ; where du and
ghi alternate indiscriminately {du, d/ijns, u, ghi, mven, u, dijn, du,
-i, ghi, &c.).

The forms of the g.s. mijns, dijns, sijns, haers (OE. vmn,pin,
sin, hire) took their final -s from the nominal declension. The
forms of the d.s. mi, di, hem(e) were extended to the a.s., whose
organic forms would have been *mic, *dic, Viene (OE. niec, pec,
hine). The plural ghi arose from Gmc. *ji£! (cf. § 48). When this

30 BEATRIJS

*ji- was used as an enclitic it lost its j, so that the enclitic form of
ghi became -i. Before this 4 < -*ji, final t < d < Gmc. / (§ 41)
appears as d, except where this t is preceded by another voiceless
cons. :

segdi (11. 307, 346, 586), moghedi (11. 321, 684, 758), seldi
(1. 324), waerdi (1. 352).

Reflexive

72. The personal pronoun is also used as a reflexive pronoun,
for which MDu. has no special form. The enclitic form of the
reflexive a.s.m. is -em, not en(e) :

hi haestem (1. 91), (hi) haddem den diwel op ghegeven (1. 521).

Possessive

73. The uninflected forms are mijn, dijn, sijn, hare (haer),
ons(e), uw(e)(u). The pronoun sijn originally referred to the
chief person of the sentence, irrespective of gender and number.
Traces of this earlier usage are not infrequent in MDu., though
the more usual practice is to restrict its employment to the masc.
and neuter sg., whereas hare (haer) is the prevalent poss. pron. of
the fem. sg. and the plural. These pronouns are declined as strong
adjj. But invariable forms are not infrequent in the n.a.s.f.
and n.a.p.

Demonstrative

74. The simple dem. pron. is used also as a definite article.
The forms between square brackets occur only in the latter func-
tion. The others are used in both. The e of the bracketed forms
stands for 9.

Singular

Masc. Ntr.

Fem.

N.

die [d(e)] dat

die [de]

G.

dies, des [des]

dier(e) [der]

D.

dien [den]

dier(e) [der]

A.

dien [den] dat
Plural
N.A. die [de]

die [de]

G. dier(e), der

[der]

D. dien [den]

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION

31

An old instr. n.s. survives in di, occurring in the adv. bedi
• therefore ', and in de, te, used before comparatives just as OE.
/y, pon. The change of de > te is due to its frequent occurrence
after voiceless sounds (deste, niettemin, &c.) :

te bat (1. 230), te leder (1. 266), te min (1. 358), te soehter
(1. 824).

as

75. The com

pound demonstrative

pronoun is declined

follows :

Singular

Masc.

Ntr.

Fern.

N. dese

dit, ditte

dese

G.

des

deser(e), derre

D.

desen

deser(e), derre

A. desen

dit, ditte
Plural

dese

N. A. dese

G.

deser(e),

derre

D.

desen

76. The demonstrative pronoun ghene, gone was declined as a
strong adj. The n.a.s.n. has, beside ghene, gheen, an older form
gheent, ghent, ghint (cf. Goth, jainata). Thefoims of the g.d.s.f.
and g.p. are gheenre, gherre, and a less accented ghere (cf. § 46).

Interrogative

77. This pronoun had originally no feminine forms ; but the
analogy of the dem. pron. gave rise to a separate feminine declen-
sion. A plural was also wanting in the Gmc. parent language.
But the new g.s.f., which in the adjectival and pronominal
declensions is always identical with the g.p., was naturally also
employed in the latter function :

Singular
Masc. Ntr.

N. wie wat

G. wes, wies (wiens)
D. wien
A. wien wat

Fern.
wie

wes, wies ; wier(e)
wien ; wier(e)
wien ; wie

32 BEATKIJS

Plural
N. wie

G. wes, wies ; wiere, wier
D. wien
A. wien ; wie

Note. Wat being a subst. was naturally followed by a
genitive case : wat groter romve (1. 873), wat ambocJite (1. 26).

Eelative

78. A relative pronoun proper did not exist in the Germanic
parent language. MDu. employed the forms of the dem. and
interrog. pronouns to supply the deficiency, the latter almost
exclusively in the oblique cases. Die in this function often
remains uninflected (1. 77), which makes it probable that in it the
old relative particle OLFr., OS., OHG. thie, the, OE. /e survives.
The demonstrative antecedent and the relative pronoun are often
expressed together by the simple demonstrative :

die daer hi haren hinderen sat \ si seide (1. 585), diet mi seide
hine loocJi niet (1. 591), ic sal u deilen weder\ dat mi verJeent onse
here (11. 570-1), dat hi seide heeft si verstaen (1. 973).

Indefinite

79. a. Een, originally a numeral, is used as an indefinite
pronoun. Its declension does not differ from that of groot (§ 63),
except that the g.s.m.n. is always eens, and the n.a.f. either one
or een. Een occurs also in the d.s.m.n. and a.s.m. beside enen.
In the g.d.s.f. ere is used beside eenre (§ 46). The same remarks
apply to its compound (ne)gheen.

h. Ander has originally strong forms only. But it developed
a weak declension after the def. art. When ander is used in
contradistinction to another pronoun to express reciprocity, it
stands without article :

dit gheloofde elc ander en (1. 159).

c. Elc, sulc, are regular strong adjj. although invariable forms
are not infrequent. Of enech, somech, and meneeh, uninflected
forms occur in the d.s.m.n, a.s.m., n.a.s.f., and in the plural
beside the regular strong endings :

a.s.m. meneeh sondare (1. 1017), a.s.f. meneghe sonde (1. 458),
a. p. meneeh tverven (1. 104).

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 33

d. Menech as a noun is often preceded by the def. art., and
when that is the case takes the weak endings. The frequent
occurrence of die menighe (1. 518), ' many a one ', gave rise to the
use of the same weak form without the article, as in 1. 49, meneghe
worpt si onder voet, where meneghe must not be explained as an
a. p., because menech as a noun is never pluralized.

e. Som, * some ', is nearly always used as a noun and almost
exclusively in the plural : some, somer, somen, some. Unin-
ilected forms, however, are equally frequent.

/. Al as an adj. has strong declension. When it is separated
from its noun by a determinative pronoun it is replaced by an
adverbial al or alle. That these two forms are not invariable
forms of the adj. appears from the use of aJle before a singular noun
and before nouns in the g.d.p. (cf. Verdam, Mnl.WB., s.v. aZ,
col. 312-15):

al onsen daghen (1. 122), in olden tiden (1. 604), alle die
cloosters (1. 610).

This construction is the only possible one when al is used in
the sg. in the sense of ' entire ' :

alt covent (1. 36), alder werelt (1. 294), in alder tijt (1. 243).

As a noun, al in the sg. is always neuter, g.s. alles (1. 269),
als (1. 648). The regular plural form is alle (1. 174), but alien,
originally the dative form, is extended to the whole of the plural.

g. Vele was originally a neuter noun, and was followed by
a partitive genitive :

hoe vele gheluux ende onghevals (1. 60), soe vele rusten (1. 123),
vele doghens (1. 485), der es soo vele (1. 498).

When a plural noun followed, the final -e of vele was naturally
felt to be the plural ending, and from a noun in the sg., employed
in the sense of * a lot ', vele became an adj. in the plural, equiva-
lent in meaning to E. ' many '. As a natural consequence, vele
lost its substantival character also in the sg. and changed its
meaning, accordingly, from ' a great deal ' to ' much \

h. (]Sr)ieman, (n)iemen < {n)ie man has regular strong declen-
sion : (n)iemens, (n)iemen(n)e, (n)iemen. The dative form is
often extended to the ace, as in the declension of nearly all MDu.
pronouns.

34 BEATRIJS

i. (N)iet < {n)ie wicht (OE. zviht * thing '), g.s. (n)iets.
h. Men [mon] is the unaccented form of man, and occurs
only as a subject of the sentence (cf. Fr. ' on ').

NUMERALS
80. Cardinal Ordinal

1 een (OE. an, § 23). Declined eerste, ierste (1. 427), § 23 note

according to § 79. (OE. deresta),

2 twee (OE. twa, n.f., § 23), g. ander, § 79 &, c (OE. oJ>er),

tweer, d. twee(n) (11. 400,
644).

3 drie (OE. Mo, § .23), g. derde (OE. Pridda, § 47).

drie(r), d. drie(n).

4 vier (OE. feower, § 23), g. vierde (OE. /eo(«^e)r/a).

vierre, d. vier(en).

5 vijf (OE. M § 46), d. viven. vijfte, vifte (§ 22), vichte (§;j 22,

U) (01^. flfta).

6 ses (OE. siex, § 41), d. seste (OE. sieoda),

sessen.

7 seve(n)(0E.5eq/b/^), d. seven sevende, sevenste.

(<sevenen, §§ 10, 30).

8 achte (OE. eahta), d. achten. achtende < achtede (OE. eahtoj^a)

on the analogy of sevende
and neghende. Also achtste,
achste (§ 38).

9 neghen (OE. ni^on, § 10), d. neghende.

neghen (§ 30).

10 tien (OE. tUn), d. tienen. tiende, tienste.

11 e-lleven (OE. en(d)le(o)fan\ ellefte (OE. en(d)le(o)fta\ elle-

d. elleven, elven. venste, ellefste.

12 twel(e)f, tweelf, twalef, twaelfte (OE. twelfta), twe-

twaelf,twellef(0E.^2(;e?y). lefste, twaelefste.

13 dertien (OE. preoiiene, -tiende, -tienste, &c.

preottyne, § 47).

14 viertien, &c.

20 twintech (OE. twentig, § 18, twintechste, &c.

note).
30 derteeh (OE.>n^%, § 47).
40 viertech, &c.

GKAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 35

Cardinal

50 vijftech.

60 (t)sestech.

70 (t)seventech (OE. hund-

seofontig).
80 tachtech (OE. himdedhta-

tig).
90 neghentech,
100 hondert.
200 twee hondert, &c.
1000 dusent.

The cardinal numbers 4-19 remained, as a rule, uninflected
when they stood before a noun. When placed after a noun or
pronoun they were declined and took -e in the n.a. When they
are nouns themselves, they are also declined and take -e in n.a.

VERBS

81. The MDu. verb has both inflected and compound forms.
The inflected forms are limited to the present and preterite tenses
of the active voice. Both these tenses contain two complete
moods, an indicative, and a subjunctive which is used also as an
optative. The present tense, moreover, has an imperative mood.
The tenses in both the indicative and subjunctive distinguish
between a singular and a plural, and between three persons in
each number. The imperative is restricted to the 2nd pers. sing,
and pi. There are three verbal nouns : an infinitive, a present
participle with active meaning, and a past participle with passive
meaning. The periphrastic infinitive or supine is formed by pre-
fixing the preposition te to the infinitive in the d.s. (te ludene, 1. 34).
A gerund occurs in the g.d.s., which are usually explained by
Dutch grammarians as the oblique cases of the infinitive.

The compound forms are used for the future and perfect tenses.
The number of periphrastic forms is very great. The usual auxi-
liaries are sullen for the future ; sijn, werden, sometimes bliven
for the passive voice ; and hebben or sijn for the perfect tenses.

The Endings

82. Middle Dutch verbs, apart from a few anomalous forms, are
divided into two great classes : strong (or gradation) verbs, and

d2

86 BEATKIJS

weak verbs. The strong verbs are distinguished by a pret. tense
with change of root-vowel, the weak by a preterite formed with
a dental suffix.

There is no means of distinguishing between weak and strong
verbs in the present tense, which has the same endings for both
classes. Original differences between the two were levelled out at
an early date. The 2nd p.s. imper. was originally without ending
in the strong verbs, and took the ending -e in the weak verbs (cf.
OE. her, 2nd p.s. imp. of heran, and n^re, 2nd p.s. imp. of n^ricm).
But in MDu. either form is allowable of any verb.

The endings of the present tense are :

Imper. Inf. Ger.
Sg. 1. -e -e — -en

-e G. -ens

— D. -ene

PI.

Indie.

Suhj.

1.

-e

-e

2.

-es, -s

-es, -s

3.

-et, -t

-e

1.

-en

-en

2.

-et, -t

(cf.§

36,

-et, -t

note 2)

3.

-en

-en

■et, -t

Part.
-ende

Note. The Gmc. vowel change in the second and third
p.s. (cf. Wright, O.E.G., § 476) has left no traces in MDu. The
forms were assimilated to those of the 1st p.s. and the plural.

Forms with early syncope of the vowel in the endings -es,
-et have a short stem- vowel alternating with lengthened e in
Classes IV and V : spreken (1. 47), sprect (1. 112), ic
come (1. 151), ghi comt (1. 158), ic neme (1. 495), nemt
(1. 141). When a verbal stem ends in a voiced cons., the
latter is unvoiced before the syncopated ending -t. The
spelling does not indicate the change consistently : bidt (pron.
Ut, 1. 439), hebt (1. 266).

83. Preterite.

The endings of the indicative and optative in the pret. have
fallen together in both classes. Those of the strong verbs are :

Sg. 1. -; 2. -(e)s;

3. —

PI. 1. -en; 2. -(e)t;

3. -en

Participle -en.

The weak endings are :

Sg. 1. -de (-den); 2. -des ; 3.

-de (-den.

I. 984)

PI. 1. -den; 2. -det ; 3.

-den

Participle -t (d).

GKAMMATICAL INTEODUCTION 87

The p.p. is formed with the prefix ghe-, whose original function
was to represent the action of the verb as complete and reaching
a definite result, so that it was primarily suited as a prefix of
the p.p. Such verbs, however, in whose meaning the idea of
completion was already inherent, formed their p.p. without this
prefix :

comen (11. 297, 715, 900), worden (1. 523), vonden, leden
(p.p. of liden, 'pass'), braeht, broeht (p.p. of bringhen).

Neither do verbs with an unaccented prefix form their p.p.
with ghe-; hence bleven (11. 5, 435), p.p. of hliveiKhe'Uven
(OE. helifan).

Note. The final -e of the endings of the 1st p.s. pres. ind.,
1st and 3rd p.s. pres. subj., and 1st and 3rd p.s. pret. is
dropped before the enclitic pronouns -ic and -i (§ 70). Such
rare forms as ic ducht (1. 301), die soebt (1. 641), with excep-
tional loss of -e after a stress syllable (§ 31), are derived
from the syncopated forms duchtic (<ducht{d)-ic), sochti
(<socht(9yi).

Strong Verbs

84. The complete conjugation of the strong verbs in Prim.Gmc.,
owing to the vowel change in the root-syllable, is made up of four
stems, which appear respectively (1) in the present tense, (2) in
the singular of the pret. ind., (3) in the pret. plural and the subj.,
(4) in the past participle. The form of the 2nd p.s. of the pret. was
in WGmc. based on the stem of the plural (OE. ic hand, pu htrnde^
probably a subjunctive form), but in MDu. it was assimilated to
the rest of the sg., and adopted the ending -s of the 2nd p.s. pres.
ind. and of the 2nd p.s. of the weak pret.

Class I

85. The first strong class had the following gradation in Prim.
Gmc. :

(1) l (OE. I) ; (2) at (OE. a) ; (3) i (OE. i) ; (4) i (OE. i).
The corresponding MDu. forms are developed quite regularly :

(1) ij (§ 21) ; (2) ee (§ 23) ; (3) e (§ 10) ; (4) e (§ 10).
bliven (1. 44), bleef (11. 200, 573), bleven (1. 405), bleven
(11. 5, 435).

bliken (1. 503), driven (11. 554, 873), crighen (11. 48, 1011),
I liden (11. 244, 933), riden (11. 95, 134, 163, 398), scinen

(11. 519, 568, 643), striken (1. 593), swighen (11. 47, 355, 1012),
beswiken (1. 308), wiken (1. 594) ; gheliken (orig. wk.).

38 BEATEIJS

Class II

86. The Germanic gradation of this class was :

(1) eu (OE. eo) ; (2) au (OE. ea) ; (3) u (OE. u) ; (4) o (OE. o).
The development in MDu. is again quite regular :
(1) ie (§ 23) ; (2) oo (§ 23) ; (3) 6 (§ 10) ; (4) 6 (§ 10).

bieden (11. 438, 729, 754), bedrieghen (1. 966), verdrieten,
lieghen (11. 591, 804, 965), verliesen (1. 957), kiesen (11. 316,
377), tien (11. 118, 233, 776).

Note. On the grammatical change in verliesen, kiesen,
and tien cf. § 43. On the contracted form of tien cf.
§§ 24, 41.

A small group of verbs belonging to this class have an aorist
present with weak-grade vowel (Grmc. u, 01^. u; cf. Wright,
O.E.G., §§472, 496):

luken (OE. lucan), ontpluken (1. 335), ruken (1. 336),
scuven (1. 664), sluten (11. 252, 790).

Note. Rouwen (§ 26) originally belonged to this class
(OE. hreowan), pret. rau and rou. The p.p. *gherouwen does
not occur. But weak forms become gradually more frequent.

Class III

87. The Gmc. gradation was :

(1) e (OE. e, eo), i (before nasal + cons.) (OE. i) ; (2) a (OE. a,
g, ea) ; (3) u (OE. u) ; (4) o (OE. o), u (before nasal + cons.)
(OE. u).
The corresponding MDu. forms are :

(1) e (§ 9), i (before nasal + cons.) ; (2) a (§9); (3) o (§9);
(4) o (§ 9 and § 17 on old- > oud-).
werde (1. 231), wart (11. 256, 419, 422), worden (1. 1028),
worden (1. 523, § 83).

belghen (1. 365), berghen (1. 502), bernen (berren, § 46)
(1. 837), bederven (11. 129, 640), helpen (hulpen, § 17, note)
(11. 464, 800, 889, 949, 1033), sterven (11. 71, 639), werpen
(worpen, § 15) (1. 937).

binden (1. 280), drinken (1. 897), dwinghen (11. 46, 93),
beghinnen (11. 9, 18, 291), rinnen (1. 61), singhen (11. 195,
333, 357), spinnen (11. 417, 445), vinden (11. 16, 20, 54, 242,
677, 681, 807), winnen (11. 348, 408, 478, 992).

Note 1. (Be)velen (OE. Jeolan, Goth, filhan) passed into
the fourth class owing to the loss of the h.

GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION 39

Note 2. Before r + lip and back conss. a alternates with e
(cf. § 15) in the pret. sg. : bereh, sterf, werp beside barch,
&c. Werden has also wert beside wart (1. 696).

Note 3. Beghinnen has an irregular weak pret. begonde,
begonste (11. 260, 846) beside began (11. 18, 291).

Class IV

88. The Gmc. gradation was :

(1) e (OE. e) ; (2) a (OE. de) ; (3) de (OE. de, before nasal 6) ; (4)
0 (OE. o).
MDu. :

(1) e (§ 10) ; (2) a (§ 9) ; (3) a (§ 21) ; (4) 6 (§ 10).
neme (1. 495), nam (11. 88, 160, 181, 848), naemt (1. 638),
ghenomen (1. 211).

helen (1. 945), (be)velen (1. 1024 ; cf. § 87, note 1), (ghe)-
breken (II. 427), spreken (11. 47, 74, 384, &c.), wreken
(1. 383), treken (11. 797, 809), comen.

Note 1. Spreken and wreken belonged originally to
Class V. The analogy of breken accounts for the vowel
change in the p.p. (on)ghewroken, ghesproken (11. 384, 506).
The forms of treken are in the present tense often confused
with those of a cognate wk.v. treeken.

Note 2. Comen with 6 < u in the pres. tense (OLFr.
cuman, OE. cuman) is an aorist present with Gmc. -urn- from
syllabic -m-. The pret. has regular forms : sg. quam (11. 101,
255), 2nd pers. pi. quaemt (1. 637), 3rd pers. pi. quamen
(1. 259), subj. quame (11. 85, 382), p.p. comen (11. 297, 715,
900 ; cf. § 83).

Note 3. On the forms sprect, nemt, eomt, cf. § 82, note.

Class V

89. The Gmc. gradation was:

(1) e (OE. e) ; (2) a (OE. 9e) ; (3) de (OE. §e, a) ; (4) e (OE. e).
MDu. :

(1) e (§ 10) ; (2) a (§ 9) ; (3) a (§ 21) ; (4) e (§ 10).

eten (1. 421), vergheten (11. 165, 379, 867), gheven (11. 56,
271, 282, &c.), lesen (11. 210, 528, 865), pleghen (11. 27,
34, 39, &c.), steken (1. 115), wesen; sien (§§ 24, 41).

Note 1. Grammatical change is found in the pret. pi. and
subj. of sien and wesen : pret. sg. sach (11. 172, 430), was

40 BEATKIJS '

(11. 17, 19, &c.), pret. pi. saghen (11. 174, 292), waren (1. 92),
subj. ware (1. 297).

Note 2. On the form stect (1. 115) cf. § 82, note.

Here belong also a few verbs with a weak present tense :

ligghen (1. 682), 3rd pers. sg. pres. ind. leit (1. 762, § 24),
leet (1. 948), pret. sg. lach (11. 219, 914), pi. laghen (1. 851),
subj. laghe (1. 86), p.p. gheleghen ; bidden, bat (11. 72, 655,
841, 975), baden, ghebeden (1. 424) ; sitten (1. 97), sat
(U. 105, 162), saten (1. 107), gheseten (1. 380),

Class VI

90. The Gmc. gradation was :

(1) a (OE. a) ; (2) o (OE. o) ; (3) 6 (OE. 6) ; (4) a (OE. a).
MDu. :

(1) a (§ 10) ; (2) oe (§ 21) ; (3) oe (§ 21) ; (4) a (§ 10).
draghen (1. 173), droeeh (11. 28, 341, 935), droeghet (1. 815),
ghedraghen (1. 121).

laden (11. 74, 864), varen (11. 158, 325, &c.), ghewaghen
(11. 368, 582), slaen (11. 245, 846, cf. § 27).

Note 1. On the absence of i-mutation in the forms of the
2nd and 3rd p.s. pres. ind. cf. § 12.

Note 2. 6 instead of oe is found in si voren (11. 290, 401),
droghic (1. 510).

A number of verbs belonging to this class have a weak present
tense and e in the p.p. on the analogy of the mutated vowel of
the present. No mutation of the a took place in lachen (Goth.
hlahjan) because of the following xx (^f- § 12) :

heffen (Goth, hafjan), hoef (hief), gheheven (1. 6) ; sceppen
(Goth, skapjan), scoep (sciep), gheseepen (1. 273) ; lachen,
loecli (1. 274), pi. loeghen (gramm. change), ghelaehen.

The forms hief and sciep arose on the analogy of the
following class. The double cons, of the stem-syllable
caused these verbs to pass into the class of the original
reduplicative verbs.

Here belongs also the irregular verb standen, whose n was
originally a distinctive of the present only. It intruded, how-
ever, into the forms of the pret., as in OE. it intruded into the

t

GKAMMATICAL INTEODUCTION 41

p.p. (gestanden). Forms of its cognate staen are mixed up with
those of standen and tend to supplant the latter altogether :

3rd p.s. pres. ind. staet (1. 276), 3rd p.pl. staen (1. 611),
3rd p.s. pret. ind. stoet (OE. stod, 11. IBI, 261) beside stent
(11. 226, 286), pi. stonden (11. 279, 334), pret. subj. stoede
(1. 575).

Class VII

91. To this class belong those verbs which in Prim.Gmc. had
reduplicated preterites with or without simultaneous vowel change,
like Gothic haitan, hailiait ; Many lailot This Gmc. distinction
between verbs with and without change of the stem-vowel is
effaced in MDu., as ie became the distinctive vowel of the preterite
of this class. In this ie two Gmc. sounds — e and eu {iu) — seem
to have coalesced (cf. § 23), e being the vowel of the preterite of
verbs with Gmc. a, de, and ai, eu {iu) of those with Gmc. o and cm
in the stem of the present tense. The origin of these vowel
sounds and their exact relation to those of the Gothic reduplicated
preterites are not clear. Not a single trace of the original redupli-
cation syllable remains in MDu. The p.p. has the same stem-
vowel as the pres. The principal verbs of this class are :

Gmc. a. (1) (ghe)vallen (1. 400), hanghen (rarely haen),
vaen (vanghen), ganghen; houden, ghewouden (cf. § 17).

Gmc. de. (2) laten (11. 320, 428, 487, 640), raden (1. 366),
slapen (1. 672), verwaten (1. 631).

Gmc. 0. (3) roepen (11. 227, 671).

Gmc. ai (4) heten (11. 617, 733, 746, 1029), sceden (1. 803).

Gmc. au. (5) lopen (1. 713).

92. The preterites of vaen (ontfaen, cf. § 42 ; note), ganghen,
hanghen, and houden have a shortened stem-vowel : vine
(11. 708, 938), ghinc (11. 87, 268, 628, 678, 707), hinc (11. 238, 687),
hilt (11. 52, 64). (Ghe)yaUen has either viel or vel (1. 400). The
infinitive vaen is the regular development of Gmc. "^fay^m- (§ 46)
corresponding to OE. fon. The less usual infinitive vanghen is
based on the p.p., in which the y had remained intact before the
voiced back open (grammatical change, cf. § 43), which after the
nasal became a stop (cf. § 39). These forms with preserved y
belonged originally to the p.p. and the pret. pi. only. But from
these they were extended to the pret. sg., whence MDu. vine,
hinc. That hanghen has replaced original haen may be due

42 BEATRIJS

to the support of the weak intrans. verb hanghen (OE. hangian).
Forms of the present tense of ganghen (imper. 2nd p.s. gauc,
1. 727) are mixed up with those of a cognate verb in -mi (cf.
Wright, O.E.G., § 547), gaen (OE. gan), which have supplanted
them entirely in Modern Dutch (3rd p.s. pres. subj. ga, 1. 246 ;
2nd p.pl. imper. gaet, 1. 676).

Weak Verbs

93. The division of the weak verbs of the Gmc. parent language
into three classes is no longer possible in MDu. The verbs of the
first or -jan class can still be recognized as such by their double
consonant after a short stem-vowel, and, where the latter was
originally a or w, by the mutation vowels e and u (cf. §§ 12, 13).
But verbs of this class with a long stem-vowel have no character-
istic left to distinguish them from those of the second and third
classes, which had all been fused into one type. Original -jcm
verbs that retain the above-mentioned characteristics of their
class are, e. g. :

(be)letten (Goth, latjan), legghen (Goth, lagjan), quedden
(Gmc. ^hwadjanan), setten (Goth, satjan), wekken (Goth.
(us)wakjan), ontdecken (Gmc. */a^jawaw), eussen (OE. cyssan),
(ghe)ciisten, vullen (cf. § 13).

94. The 2nd and 3rd p.s. of the pres. ind. of original -jaw verbs
had, before the WGmc. doubling of conss., dropped their j before
the i of the endings -is, -ip, whence in OE. these forms have a single
consonant alternating with the double cons, of the 1st p.s. and
the plural. In MDu. the form of the latter was levelled out
to the whole of the singular, except in a few verbs which retain
the old alternation beside the new and more uniform system :
Legghen (1. 131) has ic legghe, du leghes, hi leghet (leit, § 24),
and on the analogy of hi leit also ghi leit in the 2nd p.pl.
(1. 364) instead of ghi leg(ghe)t. Segghen, originally a verb of
Class III, has similar forms to those of legghen : seggie (1. 30),
men seit (1. 455), 2nd p.pl. wat segdi (11. 307, 346 ; cf. § 36, note 2).
The original distribution of forms with and without double cons,
is kept perfectly intact in the pres. ind. of hebben, also originally
a verb of Class III : ic hebbe (11. 6, 228), du heves (1. 673),
hi heeft (< lievet, 1. 436), wi hebben (1. 121), ghi hebbet (1. 118),
hebt, hebdi (§ 36, note 2), si hebben, imper. 2nd p.s. hebbe
(1. 792), 2nd p.pl. hebt (1. 266).

GEAMMATICAL INTEODUCTION 43

The Weak Preterite

95. The vowel preceding the dental suffix of the weak preterite
in Gmc. varied according to the class to which the verb belonged.
The general weakening of unaccented vowels to 9 (§ 27) in MDu.
has effaced this early distinction, -(e)de being the typical ending
of all weak verbs in the preterite. The preterite of the -jan verbs
ended in Gmc. in -iffa, so that there was no gemination of the final
cons, of the stem-syllable in WGmc. Gmc. *lati^a, e. g., would
regularly have become MDu. *letede > *leette with lengthening of
the mutated stem-vowel in open syllable (cf. § 10). But the
alternation of lengthened vowel + single cons, in the preterite
with short vowel + double cons, in the present had to yield to a
more uniform system based on the form of the present tense.
Only legghen and segghen have more frequently leghede > leide
(11. 234, 839, 1004), p.p. ghelegJiet > gheleit (1. 808), seghede >
seide (11. 14, 187, &c.), gheseit, rather than legde, segde.

96. Syncope of the medial vowel of -ede takes place after
a single liquid or nasal, after a point stop and after ^ (spelt s).
Fluctuation between -ede and -de obtains after lip and back
conss., after double liquids and nasals, after a semi- vowel, and after
s{s), sc(h). There is always syncope after weak syllables : wan-
derde, twivelde. The same rules apply to the ending -et(d) of
the p.p. The d of the ending is, after the syncope, assimilated
to those conss. that are voiceless in their intervocalic position in the
infinitive (cf. § 36).

Note. Verbs whose stem ends in -d or -t have the same
form for the 1st p.s. pres. and pret. ind., owing to the syncope
of the penultimate in the preterite ending : 1st p.s. pres. ind.
ic sende, pret. ind. ic sende (cf. §§ 28, 36).

97. A number of verbs of Class I formed their pret. and p.p. in
Gmc. without the medial vowel i (cf. Wright, O.E.G., § 534). The
following verbs belong to this sub-division :

^ . , (broehte (1. 544) brochti

bringhen ibrachte (11. 126, 412) brachtM ^^

denken (dinken, § 18) If °^f «^«f °^*

^ " ' Idaohte ghedaoht

dunken (§ 18) doohte (11. 286, 936) ghedooht

44

BEATKIJS

rsochte (11. 96, 241)
soeken j soeht (1. 641 ; cf. § 83, \ ghesocht

I note)
werken wrochte (OE. worhte) ghewrocht (OE. ^e-

ivorht ; cf. § 47)
eopen cochte (11. 167, 176) ghecoeht

hebben (orig. Class hadde (OLFr. habda) ghehadt (rarely spelt
III) ghehat)

Minor Groups

Preterite-Peesents

98. These verbs were originally un reduplicated perfects which
acquired a present meaning in Germanic. The ending of the 2nd
p.s. is either 4, the original ending in Prim.Gmc. (cf. Goth.
namt), or -es, which had become the regular ending in MDu.
(cf. § 83). The forms of the 1st and 3rd pers. sg. are identical
as in all strong preterites. In the parent language a new weak
pret., an infin., apres. part., and in some verbs a strong p.p., were
added to the conjugation.

Class I

99. weten.

ic, hi weet (11. 46, 76), du wets (weets), wi, si weten
(OKwiton\ ghi wet (< ''wetet, §§22, 28, 11. 120, 548). Imper.
2nd p.s. wet, wit, 2nd p. pi. wet, wit, weet. Pret. wiste (11. 251,
416), p.p. ghe weten.

Class II

100. doghen.

ic, hi dooeh, but more frequently on the analogy of the
regular present indicative : iedoghe, hidoghet (1. 391), (doocht),
wi, si doghen, ghi doghet. Pret. dochte (1. 25), p.p. ghedocht,
ghedoghen.

Class III

101. onnen (1. 10).

ic, hi an, du ans, on(ne)s, pi. onnen. Pret. onde, onste,
p.p. gheonnen, gheont.

dorren, durren, derren.

ic, hi dar, der, du dor(re)s, dars, ders, durs, pi. dorren,
durren, derren. Pret. dorste (1. 916), dorst (1. 734; cf. §83,
note), p.p. ghedorst, ghedurst, ghedorren.

GKAMMATICAL INTKODUCTION 45

dorven, durven, derven.

ic, hi darf (11. 62, 764), derf (cf. § 15), du dorves, dorfs,
durfs, derfs, pi. dorven, derven (1. 326). Pret. dorfte, dorste.

connen.

ic, hi can (1. 399), du cans, con(ne)s, const, pi. connen
Pret. conde (11. 69, 108, 603), conste (11. 59, 63, 130, 417, 445),
coste, p.p. gheconnen.

Class IV

102. sullen.

ic, hi sal (11. 78, 236, 267), sel, du salt (1. 650), selt
(1. 324), sout (cf. § 17), suit (with u from the plural), pi. sullen
(cf. § 35), selen (1. 503), 2nd p.pl. selt (1. 598). Pret. sonde
(< soUe, § 17) (11. 98, 180, 551, 1012).

Class V

103. moghen.

ic, hi mach (11. 117, 206), du macht, maghes, maechs,
moghes, moochs, pi. moghen (11. 321, 684). Pret. mochte,
mocht (§ 83, note) (11. 95, 378), p.p. ghemoghen.

Class VI

104. moeten (auxiliary of the optative mood).

ic, hi moet (11. 10, 11, 44, 79, &c.), du meets, pi. moeten.
Pret. moeste (11. 411, 472, 842), p. p. ghemoeten.

Doen

105. Doen belongs with gaen (cf. § 92) and staen (cf. § 90) to a
small group of verbs in -mi :

ic doe, du does, hi doet (1. 68), pi. wi, si doen, ghi doet.
Imper. doe, pi. doet (1. 361). Pret. dede (11. 36, 168, 840), subj.
dade (1. 53), dede, p.p. ghedaen (1. 318).

The Substantive Verb

106. sijn (1. 98).

ic bem (§ 46), ben (11. 74, 114, 359), du best, hi es (11. 5, 45,
76, 77, «&c.), pi. sijn, sijt. Subj. si, sijs, si (11. 154, 605).
Imper. 2nd p.s. wes, 2nd p.pl. sijt (1. 624), p.p. ghesijn (1. 601).
The preterite is supplied by the forms of wesen (cf. § 89).

46 BEATRIJS

Willen

107. The present tense of this verb was originally an optative
which in Prim.Gmc. assumed indicative function :

ie wille (11. 9, 26, 139, 152, &c.), du wil(le)8, wilt, wout,
hi wille, wil(le)t, pi. wi, si willen, ghi wil(le)t. Pret. woude
(11. 101, 134), 2nd p. pi. ghi wout (11. 131, 639; cf. §28), p.p.
ghewilt.

BEATEIJS

Van dichten comt mi cleine bate.
Die liede raden mi dat ict late
Ende minen sin niet en vertare.
Maer om die doghet van hare
5 Die moeder ende maghet es bleven,
Hebbic een scone mieracle op heven,
Die god sonder twivel toghede
Marien teren, diene soghede.
Ic wille beghinnen van ere nonnen

10 Een ghedichte, god moot mi onnen,
Dat ic die poente meet wel geraken
Ende een goet ende daer af maken,
Volcomelijc na der waerheide,
Als mi brooder Ghijsbrecht seide,

15 Een begheven willemijn ;
Hi vant in die boeke sijn.
Hi was een out ghedaghet man.
Die nonne, daer ic af began,
Was hovesche ende subtijl van zeden ;

20 Men vint ghene noch heden,
Die haer ghelijct, ic wane,
Van zeden ende van ghedane.
Dat ic prisede haer lede,
Sonderlinghe haer scoonhede,

25 Dats een dine dat niet en dochte.

Ic wille u segghen, van wat ambochte
Si plach te wesen langhen tijt:
Int clooster daer si droech abijt,
Costersse was si daer,

30 Dat seggic u al over waer;
Sine was lat no traghe.
No bi nachte no bi daghe.
Si was snel te haren werke ;
Si plach te ludene in die kerke;

48 BEATKIJS

35 Si ghereide tlicht ende ornament
Ende dede op staen alt coven t.

Dese ioffrouwe en was niet sonder

Der minnen, die groot wonder

Pleecht te werken achter lande.
40 Bi wilen comter af scande,

Quale, toren, wedermoet ;

Bi wilen bliscap ende goet.

Den wisen maect si ooc soo ries

Dat hi meet bliven int verlies,
45 Eest hem lieft ofte leet.

Si dwingt sulken, dat hine weet

Weder spreken ofte swighen,

Daer hi loon af waent ghecrighen.

Meneghe worpt si onder voet,
50 Die op staet, alst haer dunct goet.

Minne maect sulken milde,

Die liever sine ghiften hilde,

Dade hijt niet bider minnen rade.

Noch vintmen liede soo ghestade,
55 Wat si hebben, groot oft clene,

Dat hen die minne gheeft ghemene:

Welde, bliscap ende rouwe ;

Selke minne hetic ghetrouwe.

In constu niet gheseggen als,
60 Hoe vele gheluux ende onghevals

liter minnen beken ronnen.

Hier omme en darfmen niet veronnen

Der nonnen, dat si niet en conste ontgaen

Der minnen diese hilt ghevaen,
65 Want die duvel altoos begheert

Den mensche te become ende niet en cesseert

Dach ende nacht, spade ende vroe ;

Hi doeter sine macht toe.

Met quaden listen, als hi wel conde,
70 Becordise met vleescheliker sonde,

Die nonne, dat si sterven waende.

Gode bat si ende vermaende,

Dat hise trooste dore sine ghenaden.

BEATEIJS 49

Si sprac : * ic ben soo verladen
75 Met starker minnen ende ghewont,

Dat weet hi, dient al es cont,

Die niet en es verholen,

Dat mi die crancheit sal doen dolen ;

Ic meet leiden een ander leven ;
80 Dit abijt moetic begheven.'

Nu hoort, hoeter na verghinc :
Si sende om den ionghelinc,
Daer si toe hadde grote lieve,
Ootmoedelijc met enen brieve,

85 Dat hi saen te hare quame,
Daer laghe ane sine vrame.
Die bode ghinc daer de ionghelinc was.
Hi nam den brief ende las,
Die hem sende sijn vriendinne.

90 Doe was hi blide in sinen sinne;
Hi haestem te comen daer.
Sint dat si out waren .XIJ. iaer,
Dwanc die minne dese twee,
Dat si dogheden menech wee.

95 Hi reet, soo hi ierst mochte,
Ten clooster, daer hise sochte.
Hi ghinc zitten voor tfensterkijn
Ende soude gheerne, mocht sijn,
Sijn lief spreken ende sien.

100 Niet langhe en merde si na dien ;
Si quam ende woudene vanden
Vor tfensterkijn, dat met yseren banden
Dwers ende lanx was bevlochten.
Menech werven si versochten,

105 Daer hi sat buten ende si binnen,
Bevaen met alsoo starker minnen.
Si saten soo een langhe stonde,
Dat ict ghesegghen niet en conde,
Hoe dicke verwandelde hare blye.

110 'Ay mi,' seitsi, 'aymie,

Vercoren lief, mi es soo wee,
Sprect ieghen mi een wort oft twee,

166-3 j<

50 BEATKIJS

Dat mi therte conforteert !
Ic ben, die troost ane u begheert!
115 Der minnen strael stect mi int herte,
Dat ic doghe grote smerte.
In mach nemmermeer verhoghen,
Lief, ghi en hebbet uut ghetoghen ! '

Hi antworde met sinne:

120 'Ghi wet, wel lieve vriendinne,
Dat wi langhe hebben ghedragen
Minne al onsen daghen.
Wi en hadden nye soo vele rusten,
Dat wi ons eens ondercusten.

125 Vrouwe Venus, die godinne,
Die dit brachte in onsen sinne,
Moete God onse here verdoemen,
Dat si twee soo scone bloemen
Doet vervaluen ende bederven.

130 Constic wel ane u verwerven,

Ende ghi dabijt wout nederleggen
Ende mi enen sekeren tijt seggen,
Hoe ic u ute mochte leiden,
Ic woude riden ende ghereiden

135 Goede cleder diere van wullen

Ende die met bonten doen vnllen:
Mantel, roc ende sercoot.
In begheve u te ghere noot.
Met u willic mi aventueren

140 Lief, leet, tsuete metten sueren.
Nemt te pande mijn trouwe.'
'Vercorne vrient,' sprac die ioncfrouwe,
' Die willic gherne van u ontfaen
Ende met u soo verre gaen,

145 Dat niemen en sal weten in dit covent
Werwaert dat wi sijn be went.
Van tavont over .VIIJ. nachte
Comt ende nemt mijns wachte
Daer buten inden vergier,
150 Onder enen eglentier.

Wacht daer mijns, ic come uut

BEATRIJS 51

Ende wille wesen uwe bruut,
Te varen daer ghi begheert ;
En si dat mi siecheit deert
1B6 Ocht saken, die mi sijn te swaer,
Ic come sekerlike daer,
Ende ic begheert van u sere,
Dat ghi daer comt, lieve ionchere.'

Dit gheloofde elc anderen.
160 Hi nam orlof ende ghinc wanderen

Daer sijn rosside ghesadelt stoet.

Hi satter op metter spoet

Ende reet wech sinen telt

Ter stat wert, over een velt.
166 Sijns lieves hi niet en vergat.

Sanders daghes ghinc hi in die stat ;

Hi cochte blau ende scaerlaken,

Daer hi af dede maken

Mantele ende caproen groot
170 Ende roc ende sorcoot

Ende na recht ghevoedert wel.

Niemen en sach beter vel

Onder vrouwen cledere draghen.

Si prysdent alle diet saghen.
175 Messe, gordele ende almoniere

Cochti haer goet ende diere ;

Huven, vingherline van goude

Ende chierheit menechfoude.

Om al die chierheit dede hi proeven,
180 Die eneger bruut soude behoeven.

Met hem nam hi .v*'. pont

Ende voer in ere avonstont

Heymelike buten der stede.

Al dat scoonheide voerdi mede
185 Wel ghetorst op sijn paert

Ende voer alsoo ten cloostere waert,

Daer si seide, inden vergier,

Onder enen eglent

Hi ghinc sitten neder int cruut,
190 Tote sijn lief soude comen uut.

E 2

52 BEATRIJS

Van hem latic nu die tale
Ende segghe u vander seconder smale.
Vore middernacht lude si mettine ;
Die minne dede haer grote pine.

195 Als mettenen waren ghesongen
Beide van ouden ende van iongen
Die daer waren int covent,
Ende si weder waren ghewent
Opten dormter al ghemene,

200 Bleef si inden coor allene
Ende si sprac haer ghebede,
Alsi te voren dicke dede.
Si knielde voorden outaer
Ende sprac met groten vaer :

205 'Maria, moeder, soete name,
Nu en mach minen lichame
Met langher in dabijt gheduren.
Ghi kint wel in alien uren
Smenschen herte ende sijn wesen ;

210 Ic hebbe ghevast ende ghelesen
Ende ghenomen discipline,
Hets al om niet dat ic pine ;
Minne worpt mi onder voet,
Dat ic der werelt dienen moet.

215 Alsoo waerlike als ghi, here lieve,
Wort ghehanghen tusschen .ij. dieve
Ende aent cruce wort gherecket,
Ende ghi Lazaruse verwecket,
Daer hi lach inden grave doot,

220 Soe moetti kinnen minen noot

Ende mine mesdaet mi vergheven ;
Ic moet in swaren sonden sneven.*
Na desen ghinc si uten core
Teenen beelde, daer si vore

225 Knielde ende sprac hare ghebede,
Daer Maria stont ter stede.
Si riep : * Maria ! ' onversaghet,
*Ic hebbe u nach ende dach geclaghet
Ontfermelike mijn vernoy

230 Ende mi en es niet te bat een hoy.

BEATKIJS 53

Ic werde mijns sins te male quijt,
Blivic laugher in dit abijt ! '
Die covel tooch si ute al daer
Ende leidse op onser vrouwen outaer.

286 Doen dede si ute hare scoen.
Nu hoort, watsi sal doen !
Die slotele vander sacristien
Hinc si voor dat beelde Marian ;
Ende ic segt u over waar,

2i0 Waer omme dat sise hinc al daer :
Ofmense te priemtide sochte,
Dat mense best daer vinden mochte.
Hets wel recht in alder tijt,
Wie vore Marian beelde lijt,

245 Dat hi sijn oghen derwaert sla
Ende segge 'ave', eer hi ga,
'Ave Maria': daer omme si ghedinct,
Waer omme dat si die slotel daer hinc.

Nu ghinc si danen dorden noot
250 Met enen pels al bloot,

Daer si een dore wiste,

Die si ontsloot met liste,

Ende ghincker heymelijc uut,

Stillekine sender gheluut.
255 Inden vergier quam si met vare.

Di iongelinc wart haers gheware ;

Hi seide: 'lief, en verveert u niet,

Hets u vrient dat ghi hier siet.'

Doen si beide te samen quamen,
260 Si begonste hare te seamen,

Om dat si in enen pels stoet,

Bloots hooft ende barvoet.

Doen seidi : ' wel scone lichame,

U soo waren bat bequame
265 Scone ghewaden ende goede cleder.

Hebter mi om niet te leder,

Ic salse u gheven sciere/

Doe ghinghen si onder den eglentiere

Ende alles, dies si behoeft.

54 BEATRIJS

270 Des gaf hi hare ghenoech.

Hi gaf haer cleder twee paer,

Blau waest dat si aen dede daer,

Wei ghescepen int ghevoech.

Vriendelike hi op haer loech.
276 Hi seide : ' lief, dit hemelblau

Staet u bat dan dede dat grau.'

Twee cousen tooch si ane

Ende twee scoen cordewane

Die hare vele bat stonden
280 Dan scoen die waren ghebonden.

Hoot cleder van witter ziden

Gaf hi hare te dien tiden,

Die si op haer hooft hinc.

Doen cussese die ionghelinc
285 Vriendelike aen haren mont.

Hem dochte, daer si voor hem stont,

Dat die dach verclaerde.

Haestelike ghinc hi tsinen paerde,

Hi settese voor hem int ghereide.
290 Dus voren si henen beide,

Soe verre, dat began te daghen,

Dat si hen nyemen volghen en saghen.

Doen begant te lichtene int oost.

Si seide : * God, alder werelt troost,
295 Nu moeti ons bewaren,

Ic sie den dach verclaren.

Waric met u niet comen uut,

Ic sonde prime hebben gheluut,

Als ic wilen was ghewone
300 Inden clooster van religione.

Ic ducht mi die vaert sal rouwen :

Die werelt hout soo cleine trouwe,

Al hebbic mi ghekeert daeran ;

Si slacht den losen coman,
305 Die vingherline van formine

Vercoopt voor guldine.'

*Ay, wat segdi, suverlike,
Ocht ic u emmermeer beswike,

BEATEIJS 55

Soo moete mi God scinden !
310 Waer dat wi ons bewinden,

In scede van u te ghere noot,

Ons en scede die bitter doot !

Hoe mach u aen mi twien ?

Ghi en hebt aen mi niet versien,
315 Dat ic u fel was ofte loos.

Sint dat ic u ierst vercoos,

En haddic niet in minen sinne

Ghedaen een keyserinne.

Op dat ic haers werdech ware,
820 Lief, en liete u niet om hare !

Des moghedi seker wesen.

Ik vore met ons ute ghelesen

.V**. pont wit selverijn,

Daer seldi, lief, vrouwe af sijn.
325 Al varen wie in vremde lande.

Wine derven verteren ghene panda

Binnen desen seven iaren.'

Dus quamen si den telt ghevaren

Smorgens aen een foreest,
330 Daer die voghele hadden feest.

Si maecten soo groot ghescal,

Datment hoorde over al.

Elc sane na der naturen sine.

Daer stonden scone bloemkine
335 Op dat groene velt ontploken,

Die scone waren ende suete roken. -

Die locht was claer ende scone.

Daer stonden vele rechte bome,

Die ghelovert waren rike.
340 Die ionghelinc sach op die suverlike,

Daer hi ghestade minne toe droech.

Hi seide : * lief, waert u ghevoech,

Wi souden beeten ende bloemen lesen,

Het dunct mi hier scone wesen.
345 Laet ons spelen der minnen spel.'

' Wat segdi,' sprac si, ' dorper fel,

Soudic beeten op tfelt,

Ghelijc enen wive die wint ghelt

56 BEATRIJS

Dorperlijc met haren lichame,
350 Seker, soo haddic cleine scame !

Dit en ware u niet ghesciet,

Waerdi van dorpers aerde niet!

Ic mach mi bedinken onsochte.

Godsat hebdi diet sochte !
355 Swighet meer deser talen

Ende hoort die voghele inden dalen,

Hoe si singhen ende hem vervroyen.

Die tijt sal u te min vernoyen,

Alsic bi u ben al naect
360 Op een bedde wel ghemaect,

Soo doet al dat u ghenoecht

Ende dat uwer herten voeght.

Ic hebs in mijn herte toren,

Dat ghijt mi heden leit te voren.'

365 Hi seide: 'lief, en belghet u niet.
Het dede Venus, diet mi riet.
God geve mi scande ende plaghe,
Ochtic[s] u emmermeer ghewaghe.'
Si seide: *ic vergheeft u dan,

370 Ghi sijt mijn troost voor alle man
Die leven onder den trone.
Al levede Absolon die scone
Ende ic des wel seker ware
Met hem te levene .M. iare

375 In weelden ende in rusten,
Ic liets mi niet ghecusten.
Lief, ic hebbe u soo vercoren,
Men mocht mi dat niet legghen voren,
Dat ic uwes sonde vergheten.

380 Waric in hemelrike gheseten
Ende ghi hier in ertrike,
Ic quame tot u sekerlike !
Ay God, latet onghewroken
Dat ic duUijc hebbe ghesproken!

385 Die minste bliscap in hemelrike
En es hier ghere vrouden ghelike ;
Daer es die minste soo volmaect,

BEATKIJS 57

Datter zielen niet en smaect

Dan Gode te minnen sender inde.
390 Al erdsche dine es ellinde,

Si en dooghet niet een haer

Jeghen die minste die es daer.

Diere om pinen die sijn vroet,

Al eest dat ic dolen meet
395 Ende mi te groten sonden keren

Dore u, lieve scone ionchere/

Dus hadden si tale ende wedertale.

Si reden berch ende dale.

In can u niet ghesegghen wel
400 Wat tusschen hen tween ghevel.

Si voren alsoo voort,

Tes si quamen in een poort,

Die scone stont in enen dale.

Daer soo bequaemt hem wale,
405 Dat siere bleven der iaren seven

Ende waren in verweenden leven

Met ghenuechten van lichamen,

Ende wonnen .ij. kinder tsamen.

Daer, na den seven iaren,
410 Alse die penninghen verteert waren,

Moesten si teren vanden pande,

Die si brachten uten lande.

Cleder, scoonheit ende paerde

Vercochten si te halver warde
415 Ende brochtent al over saen.

Doen en wisten si wat bestaen ;

Si en conste ghenen roc spinnen,

Daer si met mochte winnen.

Die tijt wart inden lande diere
420 Van spisen, van wine ende van biere

Ende van al datmen eten mochte.

Dies hem wart te moede onsochte ;

Si waren hem liever vele doot,

Dan si hadden ghebeden broot.
425 Die aermoede maecte een ghesceet

Tusschen hem beiden, al waest hem leet.

58 BEATEIJS

Aenden man ghebrac dierste trouwe ;
Hi lietse daer in groten rouwe
Ende voer te sinen lande weder.
430 Si en sachen met oghen nye zeder.
Daer bleven met hare ghinder
Twee uter maten scone kinder.

Si sprac : ' hets mi comen toe,
Dat ic duchte spade ende vroe ;

435 Ic ben in vele doghens bleven.
Die ghene heeft mi begheven,
Daer ic mi trouwen toe verliet.
Maria, vrouwe, oft ghi ghebiet,
Bidt vore mi ende mine .ij. ionghere.

440 Dat wi niet en sterven van honghere.
Wat salic doen, elendech wijf!
Ic moot beide, ziele ende lijf,
Bevlecken met sondeghen daden.
Maria, vrouwe, staet mi in staden!

445 Al constic enen roc spinnen,
In mochter niet met winnen
In tween weken een broot.
Ic moet gaen dorden noot
Buten der stat op tfelt

450 Ende winnen met minen lichame ghelt,
Daer ic met mach copen spise.
In mach in ghere wise
Mijn kinder niet begheven.'
Dus ghinc si in een sondech leven.

455 Want men seit ons overwaer,
Dat si langhe seve iaer
Ghemene wijf ter werelt ghinc
Ende meneghe sonde ontfinc,
Dat haer was wel onbequame,

460 Die si dede metten lichame,

Daer si cleine ghenuechte hadde in;
Al dede sijt om een crane ghewin,
Daersi haer kinder met onthelt.
Wat holpt al vertelt

433 MS. soe

BEATRIJS 69

465 Die scamelike sonden ende die zwaer,

Daer si in was .XII I J. iaer !

Maer emmer en lietsi achter niet,

Hadsi rouwe oft verdriet,

Sine las alle daghe met trouwen
470 Die seven ghetiden van onser vrouwen.

Die las si haer te loven ende teren,

Dat sise moeste bekeren

Uten sondeliken daden,

Daer si was met beladen
475 Bi ghetale .XIIIJ. iaer ;

Dat segghic u over waer.

Si was seven iaer metten man,

Die .ij. kindere an hare wan,

Diese liet in ellinde,
480 Daer si doghede groot meswinde.

Dierste .VIJ. iaer hebdi gehoort ;

Verstaet hoe si levede voort.

Als die .XIIIJ. iaer waren gedaen,
Sinde haer God int herte saen

485 Berouwennesse alsoo groot,

Dat si met enen swerde al bloot
Liever liete haer hoot af slaen,
Dan si meer sonden hadde ghedaen
Met haren lichame, alsi plach.

490 Si weende nacht ende dach,

Dat haer oghen selden drogheden.
Si seide: * Maria, die Gode soghede,
Fonteyne boven alle wiven,
Laet mi inder noot niet bliven !

495 Vrouwe, ic neme u torconden,
Dat mi rouwen mine sonden
Ende sijn mi herde leet.
Der es soo vele, dat ic en weet
Waer icse dede ocht met wien.

600 Ay lacen ! wat sal mijns ghescien !
Ic mach wel ieghen dordeel sorgen —
Doghen Gods sijn mi verborgen — y
Daer alle sonden selen bliken,

BEATKIJS

Beide van armen ende van riken,

505 Ende alle mesdaet sal sijn ghewroken,
Daer en si vore biechte af ghesproken
Ende penitencie ghedaen.
Dat wetic wel, sender waen.
Des benic in groten vare.

510 Al droghic alle daghe een hare,

Ende crooper met van lande te lande
Over voete ende over hande
Wullen, barvoet, sender scoen,
Nochtan en constic niet ghedoen,

515 Dat ic van sonden worde vri,
Maria, vrouwe, ghi en troost mi,
Fonteyne boven alle doghet !
Ghi hebt den meneghen verhoghet,
Alse wel Teophuluse sceen;

520 Hi was der quaetster sonderen een
Ende haddem den duvel op ghegeven,
Beide ziele ende leven,
Ende was worden sijn man ;
Vrouwe, ghi verloosseten nochtan.

525 Al benic een besondech wijf
Ende een onghestroost keytijf.
In wat leven ic noy[t] was,
Vrouwe, ghedinct dat ic las
Tuwer eren een ghebede !

530 Toont aen mi u ootmoedechede !
Ic ben ene die es bedroevet
Ende uwer hulpen wel behoevet ;
Dies maghic mi verbouden:
En bleef hem nye onvergouden,

535 Die u gruete, maget vrie,

Alle daghe met ere ave marie.
Die u ghebet gherne lesen,
Sie mooghen wel seker wesen,
Dat hem daer af sal comen vrame.

540 Vrouwe, hets u soo wel bequame,
Uut vercorne Gods bruut.
U sone sinde u een saluut
Te Nazaret, daer hi u sochte.

BEATRIJS 61

Die u ene bootscap brochte,
645 Die nye van bode was ghehoort ;

Daer omme sijn u die selve woort

Soo bequame sender wane,

Dat ghijs wet elken danc,

Die u gheerne daer mede quet.
550 Al waer hi in sonden belet,

Ghi souten te ghenaden bringhen

Ende voor uwen sone verdinghen.'

Dese bedinghe ende dese claghe

Dreef die sondersse alle daghe.
555 Si nam een kint in elke hant,

Ende ghincker met door tlant,

In armoede, van stede te steden,

Ende levede bider beden.

Soo langhe dolede si achter dlant,
560 Dat si den clooster weder vant,

Daer si hadde gheweest nonne,

Ende quam daer savons na der sonne

In ere weduwen huus spade,

Daer si bat herberghe door ghenade,
665 Dat si daer snachts mochte bliven.

*Ic mocht u qualijc verdriven,'

Sprac die weduwe, * met uwen kinderkinen.

Mi dunct dat si moede scinen.

Ruust u ende sit neder.
570 Ic sal u deilen weder

Dat mi verleent onse here

Door siere liever moeder ere/

Dus bleef si met haren kinden

Ende sonde gheerne ondervinden,
575 Hoet inden clooster stoede.

*Segt mi,* seitsi, 'vrouwe goede,

Es dit covint van ioffrouwen?'

*Jaet,' seitsi, *bi miere trouwen.

Dat verweent es ende rike ;
580 Men weet niewer sijns ghelike.

Die nonnen diere abijt in draghen,

In hoorde nye ghewaghen

Van hen gheen gherochten

62 BEATKIJS

Dies si blame hebben mochten.'

585 Die daer bi haren kinderen sat,
Si seide : * waer bi segdi dat ?
Ic hoorde binnen deser weken
Soo vele van ere nonnen spreken;
Alsic verstoet in minen sinne,

590 Soo was si hier costerinne.

Diet mi seide hine looch niet:
Hets binnen .XIIIJ. iaren ghesciet,
Dat si uten clooster streec.
Men wiste noyt, waer si weec

595 Oft in wat lande si inde nam.'
Doen wert die weduwe gram
Ende seide : ' ghi dunct mi reven !
Derre talen seldi begheven
Te segghene vander costerinnen

600 Oft ghi en blijft hier niet binnen !
Si heeft hier costersse ghesijn
.XIIIJ. iaer den termijn,
Dat men haers noyt ghemessen conde
In alden tiden ene metten stonde,

605 Hen si dat si waer onghesont.
Hi ware erger dan een hont,
Diere af seide el dan goet ;
Si draghet soo reynen meet,
Die eneghe nonne draghen mochte,

610 Die alle die cloosters dore sochte,

Die staen tusschen Elve ende der Geronde,
Ic wane men niet vinden en conde
Neghene die gheesteliker leeft ! '

Die alsoo langhe hadde ghesneeft
615 Dese tale dochte haer wesen wonder,

Ende seide : ' vrouwe, maect mi conder.

Hoe hiet haer moeder ende vader ? '

Doe noemesise beide gader.

Doen wiste si wel, dat si haer meende.
620 Ay God ! hoe si snachs weende
. Heymelike voor haer bedde !

BEATEIJS 63

Si seide: *ic en hebbe ander wedde
Dan van herten groot berouwe.
Sijt in mijn hulpe, Maria, vrouwe!

625 Mijn sonden sijn mi soo leet,
Saghic enen hoven heet,
Die in groten gloyen stonde,
Dat die vlamme ghinghe uten monde,
Ic croper in met vlite,

630 Mochtic mier sonden werden quite.
Here, ghi hebt wanhope verwaten,
Daer op willic mi verlaten !
Ic ben, die altoos ghenade hoopt,
Al eest dat mi anxt noopt

635 Ende mi bringt in groten vare.
En was nye soo groten sondare,
Sint dat ghi op ertrike quaemt
Ende menschelike vorme naemt
Ende ghi aen den cruce wout sterven,

640 Sone lieti den sondare niet bederven ;
Die met berouwenesse socht gnade,
Hi vantse, al quam hi spade,
Alst wel openbaer scheen
Den enen sondare vanden tween,

645 Die tuwer rechter siden hinc.
Dats ons een troostelijc dine,
Dat ghine ontfinc[t] onbescouden.
Goet berou mach als ghewouden ;
Dat maghic merken an desen.

650 Ghi seit : * vrient, du salt wesen
Met mi heden in mijn rike,
Dat segghic u ghewaerlike.'
Noch, here, waest openbare,
Dat Gisemast, die mordenare,

655 Ten lesten om ghenade bat.
Hi gaf u weder gout no scat,
Dan hem berouden sine sonden.
U ontfermecheit en es niet te gronden
Niet meer, dan men mach
660 Die zee uut sceppen op enen dach
Ende droghen al toten gronde.

64 BEATRIJS

Dus was nye soo grote sonde,
Vrouwe, u ghenaden en gaen boven.
Hoe soudic dan sijn verscoven
665 Van uwer ontfermecheit,

Ocht mi mijn sonden sijn soo leit ! '

Daer si lach in dit ghebede,
Quam een vaec in al haer lede
Ende si wart in slape sochte.

670 In enen vysioen haer dochte,
Hoe een stemme aan haer riep,
Daer si lach ende sliep:
'Mensche, du heves soo langhe gecarmt,
Dat Maria dijns ontfarmt,

675 Want si heeft u verbeden.

Gaet inden clooster met haestecheden :
Ghi vint die doren open wide,
Daer ghi uut ginges ten selven tide
Met uwen lieve, den ionghelinc,

680 Die u inder noot af ghinc.
Al dijn abijt vinstu weder
Ligghen opten outaer neder ;
Wile, covele ende scoen
Mooghedi coenlijc ane doen ;

685 Des danct hooghelike Marien :
Die slotele vander sacristiSn,
Die ghi voor tbeelde hinct
Snachs, doen ghi uut ghinct.
Die heeft si soo doen bewaren,

690 Datmen binnen .XIIIJ. iaren
Uwes nye en ghemiste,
Soo dat yemen daer af wiste.
Maria es soo wel u vrient:
Si heeft altoos voor u ghedient

695 Min no meer na dijn ghelike.

Dat heeft de vrouwe van hemelrike,
Sonderse, door u ghedaen !
Si heet u inden clooster gaen.
Ghi en vint nyeman op u bedde.

700 Hets van Gode, dat ic u quedde ! '

BEATEIJS 65

Na desen en waest niet lane,
Dat si uut haren slape ontspranc.
Si seide: 'God, gheweldechere.
En ghehinct den duvel nemmermere,

705 Dat hi mi bringhe in mere verdriet,
Dan mi nu es ghesciet !
Ochtic nu inden clooster ghinghe
Ende men mi over dieveghe vinghe,
Soo waric noch meer ghescent,

710 Dan doen ic ierst rumde covent.
Ic mane u, God die goede,
Dor uwen pretiosen bloede,
Dat uut uwer ziden liep,
Ocht die stemme, die aen mi riep,

715 Hier es comen te minen baten,
Dat sijs niet en moete laten,
Si en come anderwerf tot hare
Ende derde werven openbare,
Soo dat ic mach sonder waen

720 Weder in minen clooster gaen.
Ic wilre om benedien
Ende loven altoos Marien ! '

Sanders snachts, moghedi horen,
Quam haer een stemme te voren,

725 Die op haer riep ende seide:

* Mensche, du maecs te langhe beide !
Ganc weder in dinen clooster,
God sal wesen dijn trooster.
Doet dat Maria u ontbiet !

730 Ic ben haer bode, en twivels niet.'
Nu heefsise anderwerf vernomen
Die stemme tote haer comen
Ende hietse inden cloister gaen ;
Nochtan en dorst sijs niet bestaen.

735 Der derder nacht verbeyt si noch
Ende seide: 'eest elfs ghedroch,
Dat mi comt te voren,
Soo maghic cortelike scoren
Des duvels ghewelt ende sine cracht

6«.8 F

66 BEATEIJS

740 Ende ocht hire comt te nacht,
Here, soo maecten soo confuus,
Dat hi vare uten huus,
Dat hi mi niet en moete scaden.
Maria, nu staet mi in staden,

745 Die ene stemme ane mi sint,
Ende hiet mi gaen int covint ;
Ic mane u, vrouwe, bi uwen kinde,
Dat ghise mi derdewerven wilt sinden.'

Doen waecte si den derden nacht.

750 Een stemme quam van gods cracht
Met enen over groten lichte
Ende seide : ' hets bi onrechte,
Dat ghi niet en doet dat ic u hiet,
Want u Maria bi mi ontbiet.

755 Ghi moocht beiden te lane.

Gaet inden clooster, sonder wane,

Ghi vint die doren op ende wide ontdaen,

Daer ghi wilt, moghedi gaen.

U abijt vindi weder

760 Ligghende opten outaer neder.'
Als die stemme dit hadde gheseit,
Mochte die zondersse die daer leit,
Die claerheit metten oghen wel sien ;
Si seide: *nu en darf mi niet twien,

765 Dese stemme comt van Gode,

Ende es der maghet Marian bode.
Dat wetic nu sonder hone.
Si comt met lichte soo scone:
Nu en willies niet laten,

770 Ic wille mi inden clooster maken,
Ic saelt ooc doen in goeder trouwen
Opten troost van onser vrouwen,
Ende wille mijn kinder beide gader
Bevelen Gode onsen vader,

776 Hi salse wel bewaren.*

Doen tooch si ute al sonder sparen
Haer cleder, daer sise met decte
762 MS, En mochte

BEATRIJS 67

Heymelike, dat sise niet en wecte.
Si cussese beide aen haren mont.

780 Si seide: 'kinder, blijft ghesont.
Op den troost van onser vrouwen
Latic u hier in goeder trouwen,
En hadde mi Maria niet verbeden,
Ic en hadde u niet begheven

786 Om al tgoet, dat Eome heeft binnen.*
Hoort, wes si sal beghinnen,

Nu gaet si met groten weene

Ten clooster waert, moeder eene.

Doen si quam inden vergiere,
790 Vant si die dore ontsloten sciere.

Si ghincker in sonder wane:

* Maria, hebbes danc,

Ic ben comen binnen mure;

God gheve mi goede aventure ! '
795 Waer si quam, vant si die dore

Al wide open ieghen hore.

In die kerke si doe trac ;

Heymelike si doe sprac:

'God here, ic bidde u met vlite,
800 Hulpt mi weder in minen abite,

Dat ic over .XIIIJ. iaer

Liet ligghen op onser vrouwen outaer,

Snachs, doen ic danen sciet ! '

Dit en es gheloghen niet,
805 Ic segt u sonder ghile :

Scone, covele ende wile

Vant si ter selver stede weder,

Daer sijt hadde gheleit neder.

Si traect an haestelike
810 Ende seide: 'God van hemelrike

Ende Maria, maghet fijn,

Ghebenedijt moetti sijn !

Ghi sijt aire doghet bloeme!

In uwen reine magedoeme
816 Droeghedi een kint sonder wee,
783 MS. Ende

f2

68 BEATRIJS

Dat here sal bliven emmermee ;
Ghi sijt een uut vercoren werde,
U kint maecte hemel ende erde.
Deze ghewelt comt u van Gode

820 Ende staet altoos tuwen ghebode.
Den here, die ons breeder
Moghedi ghebieden als moeder
Ende hi u heten Keve dochter.
Hier omme levic vele te sochter.

825 Wie aen u soect ghenade,
Hi vintse, al comt hi spade.
U hulpe die es alte groot ;
Al hebbic vernoy ende noot,
Hets bi u ghewandelt soo,

830 Dat io nu mach wesen vroo.
Met rechte maghic u benedien ! '
Die slotele vander sacristien
Sach si hanghen, in ware dine,
Vor Marien, daer sise hinc.

835 Die slotele hinc si aen hare

Ende ghinc ten core, daersi clare
Lampten sach berren in alien hoeken.
Daer na ghinc si ten boeken
Ende leide elc op sine stede,

840 Alsi dicke te voren dede,

Ende si bat der maghet Marien,
Dat sise van evele moeste vrien
Ende haer kinder, die si liet
Ter weduwen huus in zwaer verdriet.

845 Binnen dien was die nacht ghegaen,
Dat dorloy begonste te slaen,
Daermen middernacht bi kinde.
Si nam cloczeel biden inde
Ende luude metten so wel te tiden,

860 Dat sijt hoorden in alien ziden.
Die boven opten dormter laghen,
Die quam[en] alle sender traghen
Vanden dormter ghemene.
Sine wisten hier af groot no clone.
852 MS. quam

BEATKIJS 69

866 Si bleef inden clooster haren tijt,
Sender lachter ende verwijt:
Maria hadde ghedient voor hare,
Ghelijc oft sijt selve ware.
iJus was die sonderse bekeert,

860 Maria te love, die men eert,
Der maghet van hemelrike.
Die altoos ghetrouwelike
Haren vrient staet in staden,
Aki in node sijn verladen.

865 Dese ioffrouwe, daer ic af las,
Es nonne alsi te voren was.
Nu en willic vergheten niet
Haer twee kindere, die si liet
Ter weduwen huus in groter noot.

870 Si en hadden ghelt noch broot.
In can u niet vergronden,
Doen si haer moeder niet en vonden,
Wat groter rouwe datsi dreven.
Die weduwe ghincker sitten neven:

876 Si hadder op ontfermenisse.

Si seide: 4c wille toter abdisse
Gaen met desen .ij. kind en.
God sal hare int herte sinden,
Dat si hen goet sal doen/

880 Si deden ane cleder ende scoen,
Si ghincker met in covent;
Si seide: 'vrouwe, nu bekent
Den noot van desen tween wesen :
Die moeder heefse met vresen

886 Te nacht in mijn huus g[h]elaten
Ende es ghegaen hare straten,
Ic en weet, west noch oost.
Dus sijn die kinder onghetroost.
Ic hulpe hen gheerne, wistic hoe/

880 De abdisse spracker toe:

*Houtse wel, ic saelt u lonen,
Dat ghijs u niet en selt becronen,
Na dat si u sijn ghelaten.

70 BEATRIJS

Men gheve hen der caritaten
896 Elcs daghes, om Gode.

Sint hier daghelijcs enen bode,

Die hen drincken hale ende eten.

Gheberst hen yet, laet mi we ten/

Die weduwe was vroo,
900 Dat haer comen was alsoo.

Si nam die kinder met hare

Ende hadder toe goede ware.

Die moeder, diese hadde ghesoghet

Ende pine daerom ghedooghet,
905 Haer was wel te moede,

Doen sise wiste in goeder hoede,

Haer kinder, die si begaf

In groter noot ende ghinc af.

Sine hadde vaer no hinder
910 Voort meer om hare kinder.

Si leide vort een heylech leven ;

Menech suchten ende beven

Hadsi nacht ende dach,

Want haer die rouwe int herte lach
915 Van haren quaden son den,

Di si niet en dorste vermonden

Ghenen mensche, no ontdecken,

Noo in dichten ooc vertrecken.

Hier na quam op enen dach
920 Een abt, diese te visenteerne plach
Eenwerven binnen den iare,
Om te vernemen oft daer ware
Enech lachterlike gherochte,
Daersi blame af hebben mochte[n].
925 Sdaghes als hire comen was,
Lach die sonderse ende las
Inden coor haer ghebet.
In groter twivelingen met.
Die duvel becorese metter scame,
980 Dat si haer sondelike blame

Vore den abt niet en soude bringhen.
923 MS. gheruchte

BEATRIJS 71

Alsi lach inder bedinghen,

Sach si, hoe dat neven haer leet

Een ionghelinc, met witten ghecleet ;
936 Hi droech in sinen arm al bloot

Een kint, dat dochte haer doot.

Die ionghelinc warp op ende neder

Enen appel ende vinken weder

Vor tkint, ende maecte spel.
940 Dit versach die nonne wel,

Daersi in haer ghebede lach.

Si seide : *vrient, oft wesen mach,

Ende of ghi comen sijt van Gode,

Soo manic u bi sine ghebode,
945 Dat ghi mi segt ende niet en heelt,

>Waerom ghi voor dat kint speelt

Metten sconen appel root,

Ende het leet in uwen arm doot?

U spel en helpt hem niet een haer.'
950 'Seker, nonne, ghi segt waer:

En weet niet van minen spele

Weder luttel no vele,

Hets doot, en hoort no en siet.

Al des ghelike en weet God niet,
965 Dat ghi leest ende vast :

Dat en helpt u niet een bast;

Hets al verloren pine,

Dat ghi neemt discipline:

Ghi sijt in sonden soo versmoort,
960 Dat God u beden niet en hoort

Boven in sijn rike.

Ic rade u: haestelike

Gaet ten abt, uwen vader,

Ende verteelt hem algader
965 U sonden, al sonder lieghen.

Laet u den duvel niet bedrieghen.

Die abt sal u absolveren

Vanden sonden, die u deren.

Eest, dat ghise niet wilt spreken,
970 God salse zwaerlike an u wreken!'

Die ionghelinc ghinc ute haer oghen:

72 BEATKIJS

Hine wilde haer nemmeer vertoghen.

Dat hi seide, heeft si verstaen.

Smorghens ghinc si alsoo saen
975 Ten abt ende bat, dat hi hoorde

Haer biechte van worde te worde.

Die abt was vroet van sinne.

Hi seide : ' dochter, lieve minne,

Des en willic laten niet,
980 Bepeinst u wel ende besiet

Volcomelijc van uwen sonden.'

Ende si ghinc ten selven stonden

Den heyleghen abt sitten neven

Ende ontdecten hem al haer leven,
985 Ende haer vite van beghinne :

Hoe si met ere duh-e minne

Becort was soo uter maten,

Dat si moeste ligghen laten

Haer abijt met groten vare
990 Eens snachts op onser vrouwen outare,

Ende rumede den clooster met enen man,

Die twee kindere aen hare wan.

Al dat haer ye was ghesciet,

Dies ne liet si achter niet ;
995 Wat si wiste in haer herte gront,

Maecte si den abt al cont.

Doen si ghebiecht hadde algader,

Sprac dabt, die heyleghe vader :

* Dochter, ic sal u absolveren
1000 Vanden sonden, die u deren,

Die ghi mi nu hebt ghelijt.

Ghelooft ende ghebenedijt

Moot die moeder Gods wesen ! '

Hi leide haer op thooft met desen
1005 Die hant ende gaf haar perdoen.

Hi seide: Mc sal in een sermoen

U biechte openbare seggen

Ende die soo wiselike beleggen,

Dat ghi ende u kinder mede
1010 Nemmermeer, te ghere stede,

Ghenen lachter en selt ghecrigen.

BEATRIJS 73

Het ware onrecht, soudement swigeii,
Die scone miracle, die ons here
Dede door siere moeder ere.
1015 Ic saelt orconden over al.
Ic hope, datter noch bi sal
Menech sondare bekeren
Ende onser liever vrouwen eren.

Hi deet verstaen den covende,
1020 Eer hi thuus weder wende.

Hoe ere nonnen was ghesciet ;

Maer sine wisten niet,

Wie sie was, het bleef verholen.

Die abt voer Gode volen.
1025 Der nonnen kinder nam hi beide

Ende vorese in sijn gheleide.

Grau abijt dedi hen an

Ende si worden twee goede man.

Haer moeder hiet Beatrijs.
1030 Loof Gode ende prijs

Ende Maria, die Gode soghede,

Ende dese scone miracle toghede !

Si halp haer uut aire noot.

Nu bidden wi alle, cleine ende groot,
1035 Die dese miracle horen lesen,

Dat Maria moot wesen

Ons vorsprake int soete dal,
1038 Daer God die werelt doemen sal.

Amen.

NOTES

The Manuscript. The Beatrijs is preserved in a manuscript of the
Royal Library at the Hague, which also contains transcripts of the
Dietsche Doctrinael by an unknown translator, and Jacob van Maerlant's
HeimlicheU der Heimlicheden. The manuscript dates from 1374, but our
poem is doubtless a good half-century older. Of the poet nothing is
known except that he must have been a native of Brabant. (Cf. §§ 13, 15,
21 note.)

The Legend. He seems to have borrowed part of his story from the
Lihri Octo Miraculorum, written in 1225 by Caesarius of Heisterbach (ed.
Aloys Meister, pp. 138-40). But after 1. 552 his version contains
elements that do not occur in that of Caesarius. The episode, e. g., of the
repentant nun's entertainment at the widow's house in the neighbourhood
of the convent is not told by the latter. The incident is no invention of
the Dutch poet. It has a parallel in a Latin version of the story con-
tained in the Cod. Lat. 2777 of the ' Hofbibliothek ' at Darmstadt, and
recurs in other Latin and Old French redactions. The poet, as he tells
us (1. 14), had the story from hearsay, and 'breeder Ghijsbrecht ', his
authority, may have blended some of the different versions he had found
in his books. The legend of the repentant sacristine enjoyed great popu-
larity in the late Middle Ages. An exhaustive bibliography is given by
J. Bolte as an appendix to an article by P. Toldo, Die Sakristanin, in the
Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volkskunde, 1905. Cf. also J. van der Elst,
* Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der Legende van Beatrijs,' Tijdschrift voor
Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde, vol. xxxii, pp. 51 ff.

Editions. The Middle Dutch poem has been edited by Jonckbloet in
1841 and 1859. Both editions are out of print. C. G. Kaakebeen supplied
the want of a good edition by a faithful reprint of the manuscript pub-
lished in 1902, second impression 1910, as No. 2 of the series Van alle
Tijden. A magnificent edition de luxe was brought out in 1901 by the
Antwerp publisher Buschman, with illustrations by Ch. Doudelet.

English Translations. This illustrated edition appeared also in
English translation by A. W. Sanders van Loo. Five years earlier another
English rendering of the Middle Dutch poem had been published in The
Pageant (1896) under the title of ' The Tale of a Nun '. The latest English
version is by an American scholar, Harold de Wolf Fuller, whose archaic
and naive language is admirably suited to render the beautiful simplicity
of the original (Cambridge, Harvard Co-operative Society, 1909).

NOTES 75

2. ict<ic(e)t, § 70.
8. teren < t{e) eren, § 29.
16. vant<vant {e)i, § 28.

in die hoeke sijn, * in his books '. On the post-positive adjective
cf. § 66.
19. hovesche. Cf. § 65.

25. dochte, pret. of doghen^. 'That is a theme which would not be
suitable.*

26. van wat amhochte, gen. plur. Cf. § 77, note.

35. ornament, the accessories or furnishings of the Church and its
worship. Cf. O.E.D., s.v. ornament, 1 b.

39. achter lande, ' across country '. Cf. the obsolete or dialectal use of
Engl, after, O.E.D., s.v. B 3.

45. * whether he likes it or not.' Lieft (MS.) is a dittograph antici-
pating the t of ofte. A similar case is onghestroost in 1. 526, and perhaps
Jioven heet in 1. 626 (cf. § 41, note 2).

47-8. ' whether to speak or to be silent (to her) from whom he hopes
to obtain reward.'

49. voet may be either singular or plural (§ 52). The metaphor is
probably derived from the victor putting his foot on the neck of his
defeated opponent, in which case voet would be singular as in the Engl.
phrase underfoot (O.E.D., s. v. 33).

54-7. * One also finds such faithful people that love makes them share
whatever they have, be it great or little.'

59. in constu = ic ne conste u.

68. Depending on die duvel niet en cesseert, * the devil does not cease
doing what is in his power to tempt man.' Cf. O.E.D., s.v. hut, 22.

73. ghenaden is plural. Cf. 1. 663.

trooste, pret. subj. < troostte < troostede. §§ 28, 96.

77. ' from whom (§ 78) nothing is hidden.'

81. hoeter = hoe (e)t er. Cf. Glossary, s. v. er.

91. hi haestem = hi haeste (pret.) em (refl.). § 72.

95. so hi ierst mochte, ' as soon as he could.'

98. mocht sijn = mocht {e)t sijn, ' if it could be.'

99. lief = ' sweetheart '. Cf. O.E.D., s. v. lief, 4 b.

100. na dien (d.s. of dat), ' after that.'
104. si versochten, pret. § 96.

118. ' Unless you pull it (i. e. der minnen strael) out.' hebbet = hebbet {e)t.

122. onsen daghen. A survival of the use of the dative case as an
adjunct of time. Cf. OE. hwUum.

123. {soo vele) rusten, a partitive genitive sing. § 79 g.
131. ende, ' if.' Cf. O.E.D., s. v. and, C.

148. mijns, g.s. of *c. Cf. 1. 151.

150. The eglantine is an emblem of love.

154. en si dat, unless.

76 BEATRIJS

192. On small as an epithet denoting personal beauty cf. O.E.D.,
s, V. 1 c.

202. alsi = als si.

206. minen lichame. This use of the oblique case (dat. or ace. sg. ?) for
the nom. is very common in MDu. Cf. Stoett, St/ntaxis, § 151.

218. vertvecket < verwecked{e)t^ with unusual syncope of the second
syllable of the ending -edet. Cf. § 30.

223. na desen (d.s. of dit\ ' after this.' Cf. na dien, 1. 100.

234. leidse < hide se. § 95.

238. Manen, g.s.

247-8. * She remembers that, (and that is) why she hung the keys there.'

248. Verdam {Mnl. Wdh., ii. 1045, s.v. *^g6?enc) suggests hinct as a better
rime to ghedinct. Hinct is the 3rd pers. pres. ind. of hinghen or henghen,
the causative of hanghen. Cf. ghehinghen.

258. dat refers to het. If vrient were the antecedent, the relative pro-
noun should be dien.

262. hloots hooft. The regular form is hloots hoofts, an adverbial genitive
of circumstance. The loss of the -s is due either to haplography, the
preceding word also ending in -ts, or to the analogy of the following
harvoet.

266. ieder, comp. of leet. ' Do not love me the less for it ' (er om).

280. Scoen die waren ghebonden = ' sandals *.

291. dat < dat {e)t.

295. moeti < moet (j)i. § 71.

303. ' although I have turned towards it (the world).'

312. * unless bitter death part us.'

317-18. Literally : * I should not have put an empress into my heart,' ' I
should not have set my heart on an empress.'

320. en liete u niet om hare. The pronominal subject is often omitted
when it may be supplied from the context or has been mentioned in a
previous sentence, principal or subordinate. Instances of the same usage
in OE. and ME. are given by Kellner, Historical Outlines of English
Syntax, §§ 268 ff.

342. waert = ware {e)t.

351. dit en ware u niet ghesciet, 'you would not have done this.' Ghe-
scien with the dative of a person often expresses activity on the person's
part. Cf. Verdam, Mnl, Wdh., s. v. 4.

388. datter < dat der. niet ' nothing '.

393. diere — die er.

422. hem wart onsochte. Cf. OE. him unsofte wear/?, Sweet, Stud. Diet.,
s. V. unsofte.

423. si waren hem liever vele doot, * they would much rather be dead.'
Hem is reflexive. Cf. ME. me is lever, O.E.D., s.v. lief.

434. duchte, pret. ! Cf. § 96, note.

435. in vele doghens, 'in much suffering.' Cf. § 79 g.

NOTES 77

464. icat holpt al vetieltf ' what would it avail to tell,' lit. ' what would
it avail though (being) told.' Al has concessive force.

465. Cf. § 66.

471. teren < {t)e eren.

475-82. A clumsy insertion of later date : 11. 481-2 are contradicted
by 1. 483. Cf. M. de Vries, Tijdschrift voor Nederl. Taal- en Letterhundey
vi. 159.

491-2. On the rhyme cf. § 46.

495. torconden < t{e) orconden (sb. d.s. !).

498. f?er = 'ofthem'. § 79 g.

500. wat sal mijns ghescien, * what will become of me ? ' This construc-
tion of ghescien with a genitive occurs only in sentences introduced by
wat. Cf. Verdam, Mnl. Wdh., ii. 1602.

501. doi-deel, * the last judgement.'

506. * unless first {vore) confession be made of them {daer af) '.
516. ghi en troost mi, * unless you comfort me.'

526. Cf. note to 1. 45.

527. ' In what sort of life I ever {noy{t\) was.' The use of the negative
seems to be due to the crossing of two ideas : * what sort of life (is there)
that I never led ? ' and ' what sort of life I ever led '.

545. Die nye van bode was ghehoort. The omission of the indefinite
article after nye ' never ' offers an exact parallel to the English usage.

578. jaet =ja {e)t ('it ', i. e. 'the convent '). Ja and neen are followed
in MDu. by a personal pronoun referring to the subject of the question
asked.

595. ' or in what country she finally settled,' lit. ' attained the end '
(scil. ' of her wanderings ').

616. conder, comparative of cont.

630. mier = mire. § 7.

636. Soo groten sondare. Cf. § 64, note.

647. MS. ontfinc. The error was evidently caused by the similarity of
sound with dine in the preceding line.

648. als, g.s. of al sb. Cf. § 79 f.

656-7. * he gave Thee neither gold nor treasure except that he repented
his sins.' His repentance was his only requital.

663. u ghenaden en gaen boven, ' but Thy mercy surpasses it.'

674. Maria is accusative.

685. danct is imperative.

703. gheweldechere. Cf. § 41.

710. fnimde, an unusual spelling for rtmmde. The spelling with
single It is probably imitated from the infinitive rumen, vnth single n in
open syllable. Cf. § 8.

716-17. ' May she not fail to come again to me.' Hare instead of me
(cf. 1. 714, die aen mi riep) affords an instance of a very common feature
of MDu. syntax, the blending of direct and indirect speech. The present

78 BEATRIJS

instance, however, is in so far unusual, as the more natural change is
the transition from the indirect to the direct statement. Cf. Kellner,
Outlines, § 108.

733. The subject ofhietis omitted as it can be easily supplied from the
preceding line (die stemme). Cf. note to I. 320.

740. hire = hi (die duvel) er [in dat huus).

788. moeder eene, lit. ' as lonely as at birth,' a similar compound as
MDu. moedernaect, Engl. ' mother-naked ' (cf. O.E.D., s. v.). Cf. Chaucer,
C. T. A. 1633, Troil. iv. 298, ' allone as he (I) was born.'

814. reine. Cf. § 46.

821. Cf. § 28, note.

827. alte groot, very (lit. all too) great.

873. wat groter rouwe. Cf. § 77, note.

880. si (she) deden < dede (he)n.

886. hare straten, an adverbial genitive case.

900. dat (< dat {e)t) haer comen teas alsoo, 'that things turned out for
her in this way,' lit. ' that it had come to her thus.'

951. en weet niet. The subject (het) is omitted. Cf. note to 1. 320.

966. den duvel, dative ! ' Do not allow the devil to deceive you.'

980-1. 'Consideryourself well and examine yourself minutely as regards
your sins.' Verdam {Mnl. Wdb., i. 852) adopts Jonckbloet's change of
besiet into heliet (confess). But the reading of the MS. conveys quite as
good a meaning.

999. met desen, ' therewith.' Cf. note to 1. 223.

1018. onser lievervrouwen is object to even. Feminine nouns of relation-
ship, titles and proper names often occur in the genitive case as object
of a transitive verb. Cf. Stoett, Syntaxis, § 164, where, however, an
explanation is not offered.

GLOSSARY

aan = ane.

abdi'sse, /. abbess, § 6.

abij't, nm. habit, dress of a religious
order, § 6.

absolve'ren, tvkv. absolve, § 6.

abt, m. abbot, §§ 5, 6, 28.

achte, eight (OE. eahta), § 80.

achter, (1) prep. w. d., a. behind,
across, all over. (2) adv. behind,
§44.

a'chterlaten, VII. omit, neglect.

aen = ane, § 31.

ae'rmoede = armoede.

aert(d), m. nature, character (OE.
eard, ' native soil '), § 16.

af, adv. of, off, from (OE. of, def-),
§§ 6, 31.

a'f-gaen, VII. w. d. forsake.

a'f-slaen, VI. cut off.

al, (1) adj. all, entire. (2) n. every-
thing, all ; mp. alle, all. (3) adv.
entirely (often used as an exple-
tive, without a distinct meaning,
before adjj. and advv.), § 79 f.

al, co7tj. although.

alga'der, adv. altogether.

alle'ne, adv. alone, § 35.

almonie're, alms-purse, § 6.

als, adv. (orig. g.s. of al) entirely.
niet als (1. 59) not at all.

alB(e), conj. as, when (OE. eal{l)swd).

a'lsi = als si.

also(o), adv. so (OE. eal{l)swd).

altoos, adv. always.

a'mbocht, n. office, service (OE.
amhiht)y § 82.

an = ane.

ander, (1) adj. other, aanders
daghes, snachts, the following
day, night. (2) sh. the other, elc
anderen, each other, §§ 79 b, 80.

anderwerf(v), adv. another time,
again.

ane, aan, aen, an, (1) prep. w. d., a.
on, from, to, at; place: aent
cpuce (1. 217) ; source, origin :

begheren (1. 114), verwerven

(1. 130), soeken (1. 825) ane;

motion : roepen ane (1. 671),

comen ane (1. 329). (2) adv. on,

in, §§ 6, 31.
a'ne-doen, aen-, anv. don, put on.
a'ne-tien, aen-, II. put on.
a'ntworden, tvkv. answer (OE. and-

ivyrdan), §§ 6, 9 note, 13, 36.
anxt,/. anxiety, fear, § 40.
appel, w. apple, § 33.
arm, m. arm, § 15.
arm, adj. poor (OE. earm), § 15.
a'rmoede, aerm-,/. poverty, §§ 16,

32.
a've, hail !

ave mari'e,/. an Ave Mary,
aventu're,/. chance, luck, fortune,

§6.
aventue'ren, wkv. risk.
a*vont(d), mf. evening (OE. mfen) ;

tavont, to-night ; savons, at

night, §§ 32, 38.
a'vontstont(d), /. evening hour,

§6.
ay, ah ! alas !

B

bant(d), m. band, bar.

ba'rvoet, adv. bare-footed (OE.
hderfot).

bast, m. bast, bark, rind (OE. hdest).

bat, adv. better, more (OE. h^t),
§§ 12 note, 68.

hB>t{di),pret. of bidden (OE. hded).

bate,/, profit, benefit.

be-, § 6.

bedde, n. bed, §§ 12, 50.

bede, /. prayer, beggary (OE.
hedu).

beden, wkv. pray.

bede'nken, -dinken, m^Ajv. consider,
bear in mind, refl. be in a certain
state of mind: ic mach mi
bedinken onsochte (1. 353), I
have reason to be depressed (OE.
be/?gncean), § 18.

80

BEATEIJS

bede-rven. III. perish (OE. (ge)-

deorfan), § 87.
be-dinghe, /. prayer, § 32.
bedrieghen, II. deceive (OS. pret.
bedrog^ Sweet, Student's Diet.),
§§ 23, 86.
bedroevet(d), adj. afflicted (OE.

gedrefed).
beelde, n. image, statue, § 10.
beeten = beten.
beghe'ren, wkv. desire (cogn. w.

OE. giernan), § 12.
beghe'ven, V. w.a. or g. forsake,

abandon, leave off.
beghe'ven, adj. (orig. x>P- of be-

gheven refl.), recluse.
beghi'ii, n. beginning.
beghinnen. III. begin, § 87.
behoeven, tvkv. lo. g. need, require ;

imp. IV. d. of person: to be

necessary (1. 180), (OE. hehojian).
beide,/. delay.
beide, both, § 23.
beiden, tvkv. intrans. wait, § 23.
bake,/, brook (OE. b^ce), §§ 12, 50.
beke'nnen, wkv. understand, learn,
beke'ren, tvkv. trans, convert ; in-
trans. be converted,
becomen, IV. tv. d. please,
becoren, tvkv. tempt,
becronen, tvkv. refl. tv.g. complain

of.
beladen, VI. burden, § 28.
bele'gghen, tvkv. plan, arrange,

§§ 28, 93. /

bele'tten, tvkv. hinder, encumber,

§§ 28, 93.
belghen. III. re/, be angry (OE.

beJgan), § 87.
ben, 1 ps.pres.ind. of sijn, am,

§106.
benedren, tvkv. bless, praise, § 6.
bepeinsen, tvkv. refl. consider, § 36.
bequame, adj. suitable, becoming,

agreeable.
berch(g), m. mountain, hill (OE.

beorg).
berouwe, berou, n. repentance,
berouwen, t4)kv. intrans. tv. d. cause

repentance.
berren. III. and tvkv. burn, §§ 46,

47, 87. ^^

besien, V. examine.
besondech(g), adj. sinful.
best, sup. of goet, § 68.

bestaen, VI. w. g. undertake,
beswiken, I. betray, forsake (OE.

beswJcati), § 85.
be(e)ten, tvkv. lit. to cause to bite,
esp. to give food to a hoi-se when
upon a journey, hence dismount
(OE. bdetan, ON. beita, whence
ModE. bait), § 23.

beter, compar. of goet, §§ 12, 68.

bevaen, VII. seize (OE. befon).

beve'len, IV. recommend, trust to
the care of (OE. befeolan), §§ 41,
87, 88.

be'ven, tvkv. tremble (OE. hiflan),
§ 10.

bevlechten. III. cover with plait-
ing (OE. *fleohtan, flohten-fote) .

bevlecken, tvkv. stain, contami-
nate.

bewaren, tvkv. watch over, guard,
keep (OE. bewarian).

bewenden, bew^inden, tvkv. refl.
turn, go (OE. beivpidan), § 18.

bi, prep), tv. d. and a. Place and
motion: by (nearness, 1. 585), to ;
time : bi nachte, bi daghe, bi
wilen, sometimes ; instrument,
cause : bi rade, by advice ; ac-
cording to : bi ghetale ; in forms
of adjuration : bi mire trouwen.

bidden. V. pray (OE. biddan), § 89.

biechte,/. confession, § 24.

biechten, tvkv. confess.

bier, n. beer, § 23.

binden, III. bind, § 87.

binnen, (1) adv. within, inside ;
(2) prep. tv. d. and g. within.

bitter, adj. bitter, § 33.

blame,/, blame.

blau, (1) adj. blue; (2) n. blue
clothes (OE. bliliv, Erf. Gl.), § 25.

bleven, pp. of bliven, § 83.

blide, adj. joyful (OE. blij?e).

blye, /. colour, esp. complexion
(OE. bleo, bleoh).

bliken, I. appear, be laid bare
(OE. blican), § 85.

bliscap,/. joy.

bliven, I. remain (OE. belifan),
§§ 10, 28, 81, 83, 85.

bloeme,/. flower.

bloemkijn, n. little flower.

bloet(d), n. blood, § 8.

bloot, (1) adj. uncovered, bare:
bloots hooft, bare-headed.

i

GLOSSARY

81

(2) adv. often preceded by al,
simply, solely (OEMeat), §§ 8, 23.

bode, m. messenger (OE. boda).

boec, mn. book, §21.

bont, n. fur.

boom, m. tree (OE. beam), § 23.

bootscap, /. message (OE. {ge)bod'
scipe).

boven, (1) adv. above ; (2) prep,
w. d. and a. above, over (OE. bu-
fan), § 29.

bo'vengaen, VII. surpass.

brief(v), m. letter, §§ 5, 20.

bringhen, wkv, bring, §§ 83, 97.

broeder, m. brother, § 54.

broot(d), n. bread, loaf, § 23.

bruut(d),/. bride, §§21, 51.

buten, (1) adv. without, outside ;
(2) 2)rep. w. d. and a. without, out-
side, §§21, 29.

C(§42)

cesse-ren, whv. cease, § 42.
chierheit(d),/. ornament, § 5.

dach(g), m. day (OE. ddeg), § 50.

dade, pret. subj. of doen, § 105.

daer, (1) adv. place, there ; time,
then (1. 409) ; (2) relative adv.
where ; (3) in combination with
advv. and prepp. as a substitute
for a dem. or relat. pron. preceded
by a prep. : dem. -af (1. 12), -an(e)
(11. 86, 303), -na (1. 838), -om(me)
(11. 247, 546, 904) ; re^a^.-af (11. 18,
48, 168, 506), -in (1. 461), -met
(11. 418, 451, 474), -toe (11. 83, 341,
437), -vore (1. 224) (OE./ser).

daet(d),/. deed.

daghelijcs, adv. daily.

daghen, wkv. dawn (OE. dagian).

dal, n. dale, valley (OE. ddel).

dan, adv. then, than (OE./oM(ne)),
§46.

danen, adv. thence (OE. panon).

danc, m. thought, will, thanks.

danken, xvkv. thank.

darf(v), 3 s.pres. of dorven.

dat, (1) dem. pron. n. that ; (2) def.
art. n. the ; (3) relat. pron. which ;
including its antecedent : that
which, doet dat Maria u ont-
biet (1. 729), §§ 28, 74.

dat, (1) conj. that, so that (11. 116,
214), because (1. 128). Intro-
ducing an optative clause : dat
sijs niet en moete laten (1. 716).
(2) often used in combination
with prepp. and advv. : om dat,
because (1. 261) ; op dat, if (1.
319) ; waer dat, wherever (1.310);
waer omme dat, why (11. 240,
248) ; werwaert dat, whither
(1. 146).

d(e) = die, § 74.

dede, pret. of doen, § 105.

deilen, whv. deal, divide, share,
§23.

decken, wkv. cover (OE. p^ccan).

derde, third, §§ 15, 47, 80.

derdewerven, adv. a third time.

deren, wkv. injure (OE. dorian),
§12.

derven = dorven.

de*r'waert(d), adv. thither.

des, gs. of die, dat.

dese, dem. pron. sb. and adj. this
(0E.>5), § 75.

dicht, n. writing.

dichten, wkv. compose in language
(OE. dihtan), § 5.

die, d(e), (1) dem. pron. mf. that ;
(2) def. art.) {^) relat. pron. who,
that, including its antecedent,
he, she who : die daer bi haren
kinderen sat (1. 585), §§ 21, 29,
74, 78.

dief(v), m. thief, criminal, § 23.

diene = die (e)ne.

dienen, wkv. w. d. serve (cogn. w.
OE. peowian), § 23.

diere, adj. dear, § 23.

dierste = d(e) ierste.

dies, adv. (orig. gsn. of dat), there-
fore, thereby ; conj. whereby.

die'veghe, /. female thief, § 32.

dijn, poss. pron. thy, § 73.

dicke, adv. often.

dinc(g), nf. thing ; in ware dine,
in truth (1. 833), § 40.

discipli'ne, f. mortification of the
flesh by penance.

dit, dem. pron. n. this, § 75.

dochte, pret. of dunken and of
doghen^, §§ 97, 100.

dochter, /. daughter, § 54.

doe, doen, (1) adv. then ; (2) conj.
when, § 46.

82

BEATRIJS

doemen, whv. deem, judge.
doen, anv. do, cause, complete, § 105.
doghen^, whv. endure (OE. gedle-

gan\ §§ U, 23.
doghen'^, jyretpres. avail, be good

(OE. deah), § 100.
do(o)ghet(d),/. virtue (OE. dugub),

§§ 14, 28, 46.
dolen, wki). err.
door = dor(e).
doot(d)i, ^, (jeath (OE. deap), §§ 23,

42.
doot(d)S adj. dead (OE. dead), §§ 23,

42.
dor(e), door, prep. w. d. and a.

through, for the sake of, because

of ; door ghenade, for God's sake

(OE./wr;^), §31.
dore,/. door, ^§10, 14.
dormter, nm. dormitory, § 6.
dorper, m. villager, clown, lout,
dorperlijc, adv. basely.
dLOWQiHy pret. pres. dare, § 101.
^LOTsreD., pret. pres. need iO^.pearf),

§101.
draghen, VI. wear, carry (OE. dra-

gan), § 90.
drin(c)ken, n. drink, §§ 38 note, 87.
driven, I. drive, pursue, practise,

do ; claghe — , complain, wail ;

rouwe — , mourn, § 85.
droghen, wkv. intr. become dry

(1. 491) ; trans, make dry (1. 661),

§23.
6.u,pers.pron. thou, |§ 70, 71.
duchten, wJev. fear, § 22.
dul, adj. foolish, § 13 note 1.
dullije, adv. foolishly.
dunken, wJcv. seem (OE. byncan),

§§ 18, 97.
dus, adv. thus, so, similarly.
dusent(d), thousand, § 80.
duvel, m. devil, §§ 5, 23 note 1.
dwanc(g), pret. of dwinghen.
dwers, adv. athwart, transversely

{O^.pweores),
dwinghen, III. force, compel, § 87.

B

een, (1) num. one : der quaetster
sonderen een, one of the most
wicked sinners (1. 520). (2) indef.
pron. some one : ic ben ene die
es bedroevet, I am one who is

afflicted (1. 531). (3) indef. aH.
a(n), §§ 23, 65, 79 a, 80.
eens, adv. (orig. gs. of een), once

(OE. dnes), § 79.
eenwerven, adv. once.
eer, adv. conj. before, ere (OE. der),

§23.
eest = es et, § 11.
eglentie'r, m. eglantine, § 6.
el, n. anything else, § 12.
ele*ndech(g), adj. miserable,
e'lfsghedroch, n. elves' deceit, § 12.
elc, si. adj. each (OE. dele), §§ 22,

79 c.
elli'nde, nf. misery (OE. el(e)lende),

§§ 18, 58.
emmer, adv. evermore, § 22.
emmerniee*(r), adv. evermore.
en = ne.

ende, inde, n. end, §§ 12, 18.
ende, conj. and, if (OE. §nd).
-en(e), -ne, pers.pron.encUt. him

(Goth, ina), §§ 70, 72._
enech(g), adj. any (OE.aem^), §79c.
ent = ende (e)t, § 28.
er, -re, adv. there (1. 740). Used
especially in combination with
prepp. and advv. : -af (11. 40, 607),
-bi (1. 1016), -in (1. 581), -met
(11. 446, 511), -na (1. 81), -neven
(1. 874), -om (11. 266, 393, 721),
-op (1. 162), -toe (11. 890, 902),
-uut (1. 253) (orig. a pron. gp.
Goth, ize, § 47).
erch(g), adj. bad (OE. earg), § 15.
erde,/. earth (OE. eorpe).
erdsch, adj. earthly, § 37.
ere^, /. honour ; Marien teren, in

honour of Mary (OE. dr), § 23.
ere^ = eenre, gdsf. of een, §§ 46,

79.
eren, wkv. honour (OE. drian).
e'rtrike, n. earth (OE. eorp-rlce),

§6.
es, 3 p.s. pres. ind. of sijn.
et, t, pers. pron. n. it.
etenS V. eat (OE. etan), § 89.
etenS n. food,
evel, n. evil, § 14.

F (§ 42)

feest,/. feast.

fel, adj. fell, fierce.

fy n, adj. fine, excellent. Of persons :

GLOSSARY

consummate in virtue (chiefly as
rhyme-word, as in ME., see
O. E.D., s.v.Jine, 4 a).

fonteyne,/. fountain, § 6.

foree'st, n. forest, § 6.

formjj'n, formi'ne (?), tinsel, § 6.

G (§ 45)

gader, adv. together (OE. to-gce-

d{e)re).
gaen, ganghen, VII. go (OE. gdn),

§§ 91, 92.
gaf, pret. of gheven.
ganghen = gaen.
ganc, imper. of gaen.
ghe-, §§ 6, 83.
ghebe'de, nf. prayer, § 12.
ghebersten. III. fail, be wanting

(OE. berstan).
ghebe*t(d), n. prayer (OE. gebed).
ghebieden, II. command, wish

{0'^. gebeodan), §§ 23, 86.
ghebot(d), M. command (OE.^e&o<?),
ghebreken, IV. fail, to be wanting,

§88.
ghedaghet(d), adj. aged, § 28.
ghedane,/. appearance,
ghedenken, -dinken, whv. think,

remember (OE. gepfncan), §§ 18,

97.
ghedichte, n. poem (OE. gediht).
ghedoen, anv. cause, bring about

{O'E.gedon).
gheduren, wTcv. endure,
gheen, aphetized form of negheen,

not any.
gheerne = gheme.
gheestelike, adv. spiritually (OE.

gdstltce).
ghehinghen, whv. allow, § 18.
ghecrighen, I. obtain, § 85.
ghecusten, wkv. refi. w. g. be satis-
fied with, §§ 13, 93.
ghelelde, n. company, § 23.
ghelijc, ghelike^, adv. like ; ghe-

lijc oft, as if (1. 858) ; al des

ghelike, in just the same way

(1. 954) (OE. gelice).
ghelike^ adj. similar, equal (OE.

gelic).
ghelike', mf. equal, match,
ghelike*, n. likeness,
gheliken, I. resemble, § 85 note.
gheloven, wkv. promise, § 36.

ghelovert(d), adj. covered with

leafage.
ghelt(d), n. money (OE. gield).
ghelu(u)c, n. luck, § 13.
gheluut(d), n/. noise (OE. gehlyd).
ghemeen, adj. common, public

(OE. gemdene), § 23.
ghemene, adv. together, § 23.
ghemissen, -messen, wkv. miss.
ghenade, gnade, /. mercy ; door

ghenade (1. 564), for God's sake,

§28.
ghene, dem.pron. that, yonder.

Often preceded by die when a

relative clause follows (1. 436)

(OE.^.on),§§48, 76.
ghenoech(g), adv. enough (OE.

ghenoeghen, wkv. satisfy, please.

ghenuechte, /. satisfaction, plea-
sure, § 22 note.

gheraken, wkv. hit (OE. racian).

ghere, gdsf. of gheen, ghene,
§§ 46, 76.

ghereide, n. gear, esp. saddle (OE.
gerdd), § 23.

ghereiden, ivkv. prepare (OE. gerde-
dan), §§ 23, 28.

gherne, gheerne, «(? v. with pleasure
(OE. geome), § 16.

gherochte, n. rumour, §§ 22, 44.

ghescal, n. sound, clamour (cf. OE.
sciellan, sound).

ghesceet(d), n. separation (OE.
gescdd), § 23.

ghescepen, pp. of sceppen.

ghescien, wkv. happen (OE. sceon),
§24.

ghesegghen, wkv. narrate, enu-
merate.

ghesont(d), adj. sound in health
(OE. gesund), § 9.

ghestade, adj. constant.

ghetal, n. number ; bi ghetale, to
the number of, exactly (OE.
getdel).

ghetide, n. time, hour, esp. an event
recurring at regular intervals.
Die seven ghetiden van onser
vrouwen, the seven prayers ap-
pointed to be said at the so-called
canonical hours.

ghetoghen, p|9. of tien, § 43.

ghetrouwe, adj. faithful (OE. ^e-
treowe), § 26.

g2

84

BEATKIJS

ghetrouwelike, adv. faithfully,
ghevallen, VII. happen, §§ 91, 92.
gheve'l, pret. of ghevallen, § 92.
gheven, V. give (OE. giefan), § 89.
ghevoech(g)^ n. propriety; int
ghevoech, properly (1. 273) (OE.

gefog)'

glievoecli(g)'^, adj. suitable, agree-
able.

ghewaerlike, adv. faithfully.

gliewaet(d), ghewade, n. dress,
garment (OE. gewdede).

ghewaghen, wkv. w.a. or g. men-
tion, § 90.

gheware, adj. w. g. aware (cf. OE.
wder).

gheweldecli(g), adj. mighty, power-
ful.

gheweldechere = gheweldech
here, § 41.

ghewelt(d), nmf. power (OE. ge-
weald)j § 12.

ghewin, n. gain (OE. getvinn).

ghewone, adj. accustomed (OE.
getvuna), § 10.

ghewouden, VII. w, a. or g. to have
control over (OE. wealdan), §§17,

ghi, 'ifpers.pron. you, §§48, 70, 71.
ghifte,/. gift, § 44.
ghile,/. guile, deceit,
ghinder, adv. yonder, § 48.
ghinghen, ginG,pret. of gaen, § 92.
gloyen, wkv. blaze. Used as a

noun : in groten gloyen (1. 627),

§25.
gnade = ghenade.
god, m. god, §§ 36, 51.
godi'nne, /. goddess (OE. gyden),

§6.
godsat, m. God's hate, § 41.
goet(d), (1) adj. good. (2) n. goods,

property, § 68.
gordel, mn. girdle, § 13.
gout(d), n. gold.
graf(v), n. grave (OE. grdef).
gram, adj. angry (OE. gram).
grau, adj. grey (OE. gr^eg), § 25.
groene, adj. green,
gronden, wkv. fathom.
gront(d), m. gi'ound, bottom, § 9.
groot, adj. great ; groot no clene,

nothing whatever (1. 854) ; groot

oft clene, whatever it be (1. 55),

§§ 23, 63, 68.

grueten, wkv. greet, § 21.
gu-ldyn, adj. golden (OE. gylden),
§§ 13, 17, 32.

haer^, n. hair ; niet een haer, not

a bit (11. 391, 949).
haer^ hare, dsf. of 3 vers. pron.

her, § 70.
h&er^^ poss. pron. fs. and mfnp. her,

their, § 73.
haestechede, /. haste, § 41.
haestelike, adv. hastily, quickly,
haesten, wkv. refl. hurry, hasten.
halen, wkv. fetch (cogn. w. OE. ge-

holian, obtain).
half, adj. half,
hanghen, haen, VII. trans., intr.

hang, §§ 91, 92.
hant(d),/. hand,
hare^ /. hair-shirt worn next the

skin by penitents (OE. hxre).
hare^ = haer^, §§ 15, 70.
hebben, wkv. have, §§ 39, 81, 94,

97.
heden, adv. to-day.
heet, adj. hot (OE. hat), § 23.
-heide, § 58.
helen, IV. hide, conceal (OE.

helan), § 88.
helpen, hulpen. III. help, § 87.
hemel, m. heaven, § 10.
hemelblau, n. sky-blue.
hemelrike, n. kingdom of heaven,
hen = het en, § 38.
henen, adv. hence, away (OE. heo-

nan).
herberghe,/. lodging, shelter (ME,

hereberge).
herds, adv. very (OE. hearde).
here, m. Lord (OE. hearra).
herte, nf. heart, § 58.
het, dpers.pron. ntr., it, § 70.
heten, VII. trans, call ; intr. to be

called ; w. d. command, § 23, 91,
hets = het es (is), § 28.
heves, 2 p.s. pres. of hebben, § 45.
heylech(g), adj. holy (OE. hclUg),

§23.
heymelike, -Ijjc, «(/«?. secretly, § 23,
hi, S2:)ers.pron. ms. he, § 70.
hier, adv. here. In combination

with prepp. and advv. : -af (1. 854),

-na (1. 919), -omme (1. 62), § 21.

GLOSSARY

85

hiet, pret. of heten, § 91.
hilt(d), hilde, pret. of houden.
hinder, mn. hindrance, distress.
hinc(g), pret. of hanghen, § 92.
hoe, adv. how, § 41.
hoede,/. care, protection.
hoeo, m. comer (cogn. w. OE. haca,

corner),
hoet = hoe et.
hoeter = hoe et er.
hone, /. ignominy, deceit (cf. OE.

heart adj.), § 23.
hongher, m. hunger, § 9.
hont(d), m. dog, § 9.
hooft, hoot(d), n. head (OE. Ma-

fod), §§ 23, 28, 45.
ho(o)ghelike, adv. highly, § 45.
hoot = hooft, § 45.
hoo*t-cleet(d), n. head-dress,
hopen, wTcv. hope.
hore, dasf. ofBpers.pron. her, § 15.
horen, wkv. hear, §§ 7, 23.
houden, VII. hold, §§ 17, 91.
hoven = oven, § 41 note 2.
hovesch, adj. courtly, gentle, § 65.
hoy, n. hay, a straw, §§25, 26.
hulpe,/. help, § 13.
hulpen = helpen, § 17 note.
huus, n. house ; thuus, adv. home

(1. 1020), §§ 21, 51.
huve,/. hood (OE. hil/e, ME. houve).

iemen, indef. pron., some one, any

one (OS. eoman), § 79 h.
ierst, adj. adv. first (OE. xrest), § 23,

note 2.
let, yet, indef . pron. something,

anything, § 79 i.
ijseren, adj. iron (OE. tsem), § 32.
ie, 1 pers. pron. I, § 70.
in^ = ic en, § 38.
in^, prep. w. d. and a, ; ado. in.
inde = ende, § 18.

ja, yes.

jaer, n. year, § 52.

jaet = ja et.

jeghen, prep. w. d. and a. to, to-
wards, in comparison with, §§ 45,
48.

jo'fiFrouwe = joncfrouwe.

jonc(g), adj. young ; sh.p. jonghe,

young people (1. 196).
jo-ng(h)elinc(g), m. young man,

youth (OE. geongling).
jo'ncfrouwe, joflfrouwe, /. young

lady, damsel, § 40.
jongher, m. child, § 55.
jo'nchere, jonc-, m. young man,

youth, § 6.

K, C (§ 38, note).

caproe'n, mn. hood, § 6.
carita'te, /. charity, alms, § 6.
carmen, wkv. cry (OE. cearm, sb.).
kennen, kinnen, wkv. know (OE.

c§nnan), § 18.
keren, wkv. turn, rejl. go, § 23.
kerke,/. church, §§ 5, 15.
keyseri'nne,/. empress, §§ 5, 6, 23.
keytij*f(v), m. caitiff.
ki'ndekijn, pi kinderkine, n.

little child, § 53 note.
kinnen = kennen.
kint(d), n. child, § 53.
claer, adj. clear.
claeTheit(d),/. clearness,
claghe,/. complaint.
claghen, wkv. complain, § 28.
cleden, wkv. clothe.
cleet(d), n. dress,^?. cleder, clothes

(OE. cldj?), §§ 23, 53.
cleine, clene, adj. little (cf. groot)

(OE. cldene), §§ 23, 68.
clo'cseel, n. bell-rope (OE. sal).

§§6,23.
clooster, nm. cloister, convent,

§§ 5, 23, 57.
cnielen, wkv. kneel, § 23.
cochte, pret. of copen, § 97.
coenlijc, adv. fearless (OE. cenlice).
co'man (<coopnian), m. merchant,

pedlar (OE. ceapman), § 38.
comen, IV. come, happen, §§ 82

note, 83, 88.
conforte'ren, wkv. comfort, § 6.
eonfuu's, adj. confused, § 6.
connen, pret.pres. be able (OE.

cunnan), §§ 9, 101.
co(n)ste, pret. of connen.
cont(d), adj. known, informed (OE.

ctijf).
coor, mn. choir, chancel,
copen, wkv. buy (OE clepan), §§ 23,

97.

86

BEATRIJS

cordewae'n, adj. cordwain, § 6.
co'rtelike, adv. in short time,

quickly,
costeri'nne, /. sacristan, § 6.
co'stersse,/. sacristine.
couse,/. stocking, § 42.
co-vel(e),/m. hood (OE. cuffle), § 14.
cove'nt, covi'nt, n. convent, §§ 18,

36 note,
cracht,/. force, power (OE. crdeft),

§44.
crane, adj. poor, scanty, sick.
cra'ncheit(d), /. sickness.
cruce,/»t. cross, §§ 5, 42.
orupen, II. creep.
cruut(d), n. herb, grass.
QUBQen^whv. kiss (OE. cyssan), §§ 13,

lacen, alas !

lach(g), pret. of ligghen.
lachen, VI. laugh, §§ 12, 41, 90.
lachter, mn. vice, shame, ignominy

(OE. leahtor).
lachterlijc, adj. shameful, igno-
minious,
lampte,/. lamp,
langhe, lane, adv. long.
lanc(g), adj. long, § 40.
lant(d), n. land.

lanx, adv. along, vertically, § 40.
lat, adj. slow (OE. Idet).
late, adj. adv. late, sm^?. lest : ten

lesten, at last (1. 655), § 68.
laten, VII. let, allow, leave, fail

{w.g., 11. 716, 769), forsake, refuse,

w;.^., §§21, 91.
lede, pi. of lit.
leetS leit(d), adj. loth (OE. laj?) ;

enen leet hebben, dislike (1.

266), § 23.
leet(d)'', pret. of liden.
leet^,leit, Zp.s.pres. ind. of ligghen.
legghen, wkv. lay (OE. l^cgan);

legghen voren, propose (1. 378),

§§ 93, 94, 95.
leiden, whv. lead, § 23.
lesen, V. read, recite, pray, gather

(OE. lesan), § 89.
lest, sup. of late,
leven^, wkv. live (OE. lifian).
leven^ n. life.
li'chame, mn. body, person, §§ 6,

22, 32, 41, 59.

licht, n. light.

lichten, v)kv. shine.

liden, I. go, pass (OE. llpan), §§ 21,

83, 85.
liede, mp. people (OE. Uode), § 23.
lief, adj, dear ; adv. comp. liever,

rather ; mf. sweetheart, darling

(OE. leof), §§ 23, 67.
lieghen, II. lie (OE. leogan), §§ 23,

86.
li'en, whv. confess, § 27.
liep, pret. of lopen, § 91.
\iett ptret. of laten, § 91.
lieve,/. love.

ligghen, V. lie (OE. licgan), § 89.
lijf, n. life, body, §§ 21, 59.
list,/, cunning (OE. list).
lit(d), n. limb, joint (OE. lij?\ § 10.
locht,/. air (cf. OE. hjft), §§ 9, 44.
loech,^re^. of lachen.
lof(v), mn. praise, honour,
lonen, tvhv. reward (OE. leanian).
looGhl^g) , pret. of lieghen.
loon, n. reward (OE. lean), § 23.
loos, adj. false (OE. leas), § 23.
lopen, VII. run (OE. hlSapan),

§§ 23, 41, 91.
loven, tvJcv. praise.
luden, wkv. sound, ring (OE. hl§-

dan), §§ 21, 41.
luttel, adj. little ; sh, a little, §§ 13,

33, 68.

M

macht,/. might, power.

mael, mfn. time ; te male, entirely

(1. 231) (OE. mdel).
maer, conj. but, §§28, 31, 46.
m.ag(li)edooni, mn. maidenhood.
niagliet(d),/. maiden, maid,
maken, wkv. make ; rejl. to prepare

to go, proceed, § 28.
man, m. man, husband, vassal (L

523).
manen, wkv. remind, beseech (OE.

manian).
mantel, m. mantle,
mate, /. measure ; uter maten,

exceedingly (11. 432, 987).
mede, adv. besides, also, §§ 6, 31.
medevoeren, tvkv. carry along,
meer, adv., comp. of vele, more,

further, henceforth; min no

meer, exactly (1. 695), §§ 23, 68.

GLOSSARY

87

men, inde/.pron. people, one, §

79 k.
menech(g), adj. sh. many ; menech

werven, often ; (die) meneghe,

many a one (11. 49, 518), § 79 d.
nieneclifout(d), acT/. manifold, § 17.
menen, ivkv. mean, § 23.
mensche, m. man, human being,

§§ 12, 37.
menschelijc, adj. human,
mere, adj. (comp. of groot), greater,

§68.
merken, tvkv. observe, see.
merren, tvJcv. tarry (OE. mien'an).
mes, n. knife (OE. m^tseax), § 12.
mesdaet(d),/. misdeed.
mes-winde,/w. distress, § 18.
met(d), prep. w. d. and a., adv. with,

besides (OE. mid), § 31.
me'ttenen, mettine, metten, fp.

matins, §§ 5, 6, 12, 30.
me'ttenstonde, /. the hour of

matins, § 6.
middemacht, /. (orig. ds. of mid-

(de)nacht), midnight,
mier, gp. of mijn, § 46.
mijn, poss. pron. my, § 73.
min, adv. [comp. of luttel), less.

mln no meer, exactly (1. 695),

§68.
minder, adj. [comp. of clene), less,

smaller, §§ 39, 68.
minne, /. love, beloved (esp. in the

vocative),
minnen, wkv. love,
minst, adj. {sup. of clene), least,

smallest, § 68.
mira'cle, mieracle, fn. miracle,

§6.
moede, adj. tired, weary (OE. w^e).
moeder, /. mother, moeder eene,

quite alone (1. 788), § 54.
moet(d), m. heart (OE. mod),
■moeten tpret.pres. may, shall, ought

to, must (OE. mot),^ 104.
moghen, pret. pres. may, be able,

shall, have reason to (OE. mdez),

§103.
mont(d), m. mouth, § 9.
mordenare, m. murderer, § 46.
morg(h)en, m. morning, smor-

g(h)ens, in the morning (11. 329,

974) (OE. morgen).
mure, muur, mf. wall, § 5.

N

na, adv., prep. w.d. and a. after,
according to. na dat, conj. since
(1.893), §41.

nacbt, nach, fm. night, snaohs
(1. 620), in the night, te nacht,
to-night (1. 885), § 38.

naect, adj. naked, § 28.

name, mf. name.

natu're,/. nature, § 6.

ne, (e)n, (1) negative particle used
in combination with negative
advv. and pronouns, en si dat,
unless. (2) enclitic conj., con-
necting a dependent clause to a
principal sentence containing a
negative statement : maer em-
mer en lietsi aehter niet | sine
las alle daghe met trouwen \
die seven ghetiden van onser
vrouwen (11. 467-70), but.

neder, adv. down (OE. niper), §§ 6,
10.

ne'derlegghen, wkv. lay down.

ne'dersitten, V. sit down.

negheen, gheen, indef. pron, not
any^ none, §§ 65, 79.

nemen, IV. take, § 88.

nemmeer, nothing more, § 22.

nemmermeer, -mere, adv. never-
more.

neven, adv., prep. w.d. and a. be-
sides, beside, § 29.

nie, nye, adv. never.

niemen, nyeman, indef. pron. no
one, § 79h.

niet, (1) indef. pron. nothing ; (2)
adv. not, §§ 41, 79 i.

niewer, adv. nowhere, § 32 note.

no, conj. nor. no — no (1. 32),
weder — no (1. 656), neither —
nor.

nooh.^ adv. still, yet, besides.

nochtan (< noch dan), adv. yet,
still, nevertheless.

noemen, wkv. name.

nonne,/. nun.

noot(d), mf. need, distress, §§ 23,59.

nopen, ivkv. urge.

noyt, adv. never. In indefinite
and negative statements : ever
(1. 527).

nu, adv. now.

nye = nie, nyemen = niemen.

88

BEATEIJS

ocht = oft(e).

of, cofij. if.

oft(e), ocht, conj. or, if. weder —

ofte, whether — or (1. 47) (OE.

oJ^J^e), § 44.
oghe, nf. eye (OE. ea^e), §§ 23, 58.
owL(in.e)fprep. adv. about, for. om

dat, because (1. 261) ; hier omme,

for this reason (1. 62) (OE. ymh),

§§ 13, 31, 40.
on-, pre/, un-, §§ 6, 9.
onbequa'me, adj. loathsome,
onbescou'den, adj. unscolded, un-
punished, § 17.
onder, prep. w. d. and a., under, § 9.
ondercu'ssen, wkv. recipr. kiss each

other, § 6.
ondervi'nden. III. experience, find

out, § 6.
ongheso'nt(d), adj. sick, ill.
onghetroo'st, adj. inconsolable,

uncared-for, § 28.
o'ngheval, 7i. misfortune.
onghewro'ken, adj. unavenged

(OE. univrecen).
onnen, pret.pres. grant (OE. un-

nan), §§ 9, 101.
o'nrecht, n. wrong, injustice (OE.

unrikt), § 6.
ona, pers. pro)i. dap. of ic,us, §§ 9, 70.
ons(e), poss.pron. our, §§ 28, 31, 73.
onso'chte, adv. hard, in discomfort,
ont-, prefix, with privative force,

§§ 6, 9.
ontbie'den, II. announce, com-
mand,
ontde'cken, wkv. uncover, discover,

publish, § 93.
ontdoe'n, ativ. open,
ontfae'n, VII. receive, §§ 42, 91.
ontfa'rmen, tvkv. impers. w. a. and

g. have mercy upon (cf. OE.

ofearmian).
ontfe*rmecheit(d),/. mercy,
ontfe'rmelike, adv. piteously.
ontfeTmenisse,/ pity, § 15.
ontgae'n, VII. w.d. escape, § 42

note.
onthe*lt(d), pret. of onthou'den.
onthou'den, VII. keep, support,
ontplu'ken, II. unfold, § 86.
cntslu'ten, II. unlock, § 86.
ontspri'nghen, III. start up.

onvergou'den, adj. unrequited
(OE. unforgolden) , § 17.

onversa'ghet(d), adj. adv. fearless,
§§ 28, 42.

ooc, adv. also, indeed (OE. eac), § 23.

oost, (1) adv. eastward ; (2) n. east,
§23.

ootmoe'dechede, /. mercy, § 23.

ootmoe'delijo, adv. humbly (OE.
eaj>mddlice), § 23.

op, prej). adv. upon, into, to ; up,
open, op dat, if, supposing that
(1. 319), § 6.

open, adj. open.

openba're, -baer, adv. in public,
generally known.

o'pgheven, V. surrender.

ophe'fifen, VII. raise, commence
(OE. /^g&&an), §§ 6, 90.

o'pstaen, VI. rise.

opten = op den, § 40.

oTdeel, n. judgement (OE. orddl),
§§ 6, 23.

o'rconde, mf. witness, §§ 6, 58.

oTconden, wkv. testify, make
known, § 6.

oTlof(v), m. permission to go, leave,
§6.

orloy*,/«. clock, § 6.

omame'nt, n. ornament, § 6.

out(d), adj. old, sh.p. oude, old peo-
ple (1. 196), § 17.

ou'taer, nm. altar, §§ 5, 6, 17, 32.

oven, hoven, m. oven.

over, (1) prep. w. d. and a. place :
over al (11. 332, 1015), every-
where ; over een velt (1. 164),
across a field ; time, future : over
.vni. nachte (1. 147), after eight
nights; past: over .Xllll. iaer
(1. 801), fourteen years ago ;
identity : over waer (11. 30, 239),
for truth ; over dieveghe, as a
thief. (2) adv. exceedingly : over
groot (1. 751).

o'verbringhen, wkv. spend.

paer, n. pair, § 52.

paert(d), n. horse, §§ 5, 6, 16.

pant(d), nm. pledge, security, pro-
perty, teren vanden panda
(1. 411), live on the money raised
on pawned property.

GLOSSARY

pels, m. coarse undergarment (OE.

pil{e)ce < Lat. pellicia).
penite'ncie,/. penitence, § 6.
pe*nninc(g), w. penny, pi. money

{OE. p§7iing)f ^ 12.
perdoe'n, n. pardon,
pine,/, pain, §§ 5, 20.
pinen, wkv. labour, exert one's self.
plach(g), pret. of pleghen.
plaghe, /. calamity, plague,
pleghen, IV. be in the habit of,

§89.
poent(e), nfm. point, qumtessence.
pont(d), n. pound, §§ 5, 9, 52.
poort,/. port, town, §§ 5, 16.
pretioo's, adj. precious, §§ 6, 38.
prie*mtijt(d), /. the first hour of

the day, 6 o'clock a.m. (ME.

pj'ime-tide).
prime, /. the Divine ofiice ap-
pointed for the first hour of the

day.
prisen, whv. praise, § 36.
proeven, wkv. prove, try, inquire.

quaet(d), adj. evil (cf. OE. cwead,

' dung ').
quale,/, misery (OE. cwalu).
qualijc, adv. badly, hardly, § 38.
quam, pret. of comen, § 88 note 2.
quedden, wkv. greet, address (cf.

OE. cividdian), §§ 28, 93.
quite, quijt, adj.w.g. free, devoid

of.

R

raden, VII. advise, § 91.

raet(d), m. advice.

-re = er, § 47.

rechtS n. right, na recht (1. 171),

properly, met rechte (1. 831),

with good reason,
recht'^, adj. right, straight,
recken, wkv. extend, stretch (OE.

reet(d), reden, pret. of riden.
religioo'n, n. state of life bound

by monastic vows, § 6.
re van, wkv. rave,
reyne, adj. clean, pure (Goth.

hrains), §§ 23, 41.
riden, I. ride, § 85.
riep, pret. of roepen, § 91.

ries, adj. foolish.

riet(d), pret. of raden.

rikeS adj. rich; sb.p. the rich (1.

504); adv. abundantly (1. 339).
rike^ n. realm, kingdom (OE. rice).
rinnen. III. run, flow (OE. ieman),

§87.
roepen, VII. call, cry (OE. hropan),

§§ 41, 91.
roc, m. upper garment, skirt (OE.

rocc).
roTs.en, pret. pi. of ruken.
root(d), adj. red, § 23.
rossi'de, n. horse (cf. 0. E. D. s.v.

rouncy), § 6.
rouwe, fm. sorrow (OE. hreow),

§§ 26, 41.
rouwen, wkv. cause repentance

(OE. hreowan), § 86.
ruken, 11. smell (cf. OE. reocan, E.

reek), § 86.
rumen, wkv. leave.
ruste, /. rest.
ru(u)sten, wkv. intrans. and rejl.

rest.

S(§42)

sach, saghen, § 21, pret. of sien.
sadelen, wkv. saddle.
saen, adv. soon, § 21.
sake,/, matter, thing (OE. sacu).
sal, salt, saelt, pres. ind. of sullen,
sacristi'e, /. sacristy, § 6.
saluu't, mn. greeting, § 6.
samen, adv. together. t(e) samen,

together (OE. samen).
Sanders = des anders.
sano(g), pret. of singhen.
Savons = des avon(t)s.
scaden, wkv. do mischief (OE.

scajjian).
scaerla'ken, n. red cloth, § 16.
scame,/. shame,
scamelijc, adj. shameful,
scande,/. disgrace (OE. scand).
scat, m. treasure (OE. sceatt).
sceden, VII. separate, depart (OE.

scddan), §§ 23, 91.
sceen, scheen, pret. of scinen.
scenden, scinden, wkv. put to

shame, destroy (OE. sc§ndan),
sceppen, VII. shape (OE. scieppan),

§90.
Bciere, adv. soon, quickly, at once,

§21.

90

BEATKIJS

sciet(d), pret. of sceden.
scinden = scenden, § 18.
scinen, I. appear, become visible

(OE. scinaii), § 85.
scoe, m. shoe, §§ 41, 57.
scone, adj. beautiful (OE. sdene),

§39.
scoo'nlie(i)de, -heit, fn. beauty,

jewellery, § 58.
scoren, wkv. tear, destroy, make

ineffective, § 14.
sede, mf. manner (OE. siduX §§ 10,

58.
seder, zeder, adv. since (OE. sli^or),

§10.
see, zee, /. sea, §§ 23, 48.
segghen, wJcv. say (OE. secgan),

§§ 94, 95.
seit, 3 p.s. pres. ind. of segghen,

§24.
seker, adj. certain ; adv. indeed

(OE. sicor), § 10.
se'kerlike, adv. certainly.
selden, adv. seldom.
selc = sulc.
selve, adj. sh. self, same.
se'lverijn, adj. silver (OE. sylfren),

§32.
senden, sinden, wTcv. send, § 36.
sere, adv. much, greatly (OE. sdre).
sercoo't = sorcoo't.
sermoe'n, n. sermon, § 6.
setten, wTcv. set, § 93.
seve(n), seven, §§ 10, 46, 80.
siS "^ p.s. pres. subj. of sijn, be.
si^ 3 pers. ptvn. nsf. and np. she,

they, § 70.
sideS zide, /. side,
side^ /. silk (OE. side, Lat. seta\

§§ 5, 20.
siecheit(d), /. illness, sickness, § 23.
siele, ziel(e),/. soul,
sien, V. see, §§ 24, 41, 89.
sijn^ pron. poss. his, its, § 73.
sijn^, anv. be, §§ 81, 106.
sin, m. sense (11. 3, 231, 589), heart

(11. 90, 126, 317), love (1. 119).
sinden = senden.
singhen. III. sing, § 87.
sint(d), prep, since, sint dat, conj.

since (OE. si/?).
sitten, V. sit, sit down, § 89.
slachten, wkv. resemble.
slaen, VI. strike, cast (OE. slean),

§§ 27, 41, 90.

slaep, m. sleep.

slapen, VII. sleep, § 91.

sliep, pret. of slapen.

slotel, m. key, § 14.

smaken, wJev. have a savour, taste

(ME. smaken).
smal, adj. little, thin, slim ; sh.f.

die scone smale (1. 192), the

lovely fair one.
smerte,/. smart, pain,
snel, adj. quick (OE. snell).
sneven, wkv. fall, stumble, sin.
sochte*, adj. soft, quiet ; adv.

quietly, peaceably, §§ 44, 46.
socht(e)^, pret. of soeken, § 97.
soeken, wkv. seek, §§ 21, 97.
soete, suete, adj. sweet ; adv.

sweetly (1. 336) ; sh.n. tsuete (1.

140), sweetness, §§ 21, 48.
soghen, wkv. suckle, § 23.
so'ndare, sonder(e), m. sinner,

§50.
sonde,/, sin, § 13.
sondech(g), adj. sinful,
sondelijc, adj. sinful.
sender, prep, without (OE. sundor,

adv.), I 9.
so'nderlinghe, adv. especially.
so*nders(s)e, zondersse,/. sinner,
sone, m. son, §§ 10, 50.
Sonne,/, sun.
so(o), adv. so. Often preceding the

predicate when this, in its turn,

precedes the subject : u soo

waren bat bequame | scone

ghewaden (1. 264), daer soo be-

quaemt hem wale (1. 404), §§ 48,

64 note,
sorghen, wkv. be anxious (OE. sor-

gian).
sorcoo't, sercoo't, mn. a woman's

jacket without sleeves.
soude, pret. of sullen, § 17.
spade, adj. adv. late (cf. Goth. comp.

spediza), § 68.
sparen, wkv. trans, spare ; intrans.

tarry.
spel, n. game.

spelen, wkv. play (OE. spilian).
spinnen. III. spin, § 87.
spise, /. food (med. Lat. spesa <

spensa), §§ 5, 20.
spoet(d),/m. speed,
spreken, IV. speak, utter (OE.

sprecan), §§ 10, 82 note, 88,

GLOSSAEY

91

Btade, /. opportunity, good con-
dition, aid. in staden staen

(11. 444, 744, 863), aid {vb.).
staen, standen, VI. stand, § 90.
stare, adj. strong (OE. stearc), §

15.
stat(d),/m. place, town UOE. st§de)
stede, fm. place, town j § 50 note,
steken, V. tranfs. prick; inUxins.

stick, remain fixed (cogn. w. OE.

stician), § 89.
stemme,/. voice (OE. stemn)^ § 46.
sterven. III. die (OE. steorfan),

§87.
sti'llekine, adv. quietly.
stoet(d), pret. of staen.
stonde, /. hour, short period of

time (OE. stund).
strael, m. arrow (OE. strM).
strate, /. street, siere straten

gaen, go away, §§ 5, 20.
striken, I. trans, rub, stroke ; in-

trans. move, go, § 85.
subtij'l, adj. refined, § 36.
suchten, wkv. sigh, §§ 22, 44.
suer, adj, sour ; sb.n. tsuere (1. 140),

§§ 8, 21.
suete = soete, § 8.
sulc, sale, adj. such ; sb. many a

one (11. 46, 51), §§ 13, 79 c.
sullen, pret. pres. shall, will. Used

as an auxiliary of the future tense

and the imperative mood, §§ 13,

35 note, 81, 102.
suverlijc, adj. pure, beautiful ; sb.

suverlike, pure one (11. 307, 340)

(OE. sy/re), § 21.
swaer, zwaer, adj. heavy (OE.

swder), § 39.
swaerlike, adv. heavily.
swert(d), n. sword,
swighen, I. be silent, to. g. (1. 355)

and tram. (1. 1012) (OE. swlgan),

§85.

tale,/, words spoken, tale.

te*, (1) prep. w. d. and a. of motion :

to (11. 85, 224) ; rest : at (1. 543) ;

to form the supine : si plach te

ludene (1, 34), te wesen (1. 27).

(2) adv. too, w. adjj. and adw. : te
. swaer (1. 155), te groot (1. 827),

§§ 29, 30, 81.

te^ (< de, orig. instr. s. of dat),
used before compp., the (cf. OE.
M port), § 74.

telt(d), m. trot, sinen (den) telt
riden, varen, trot.

ten == te den, § 30.

teren, wkv. subsist (cogn. w. OE.
teran).

termij'n, m. term, period, § 6.

tes (< te des), conj. until.

tien, II. draw (OE. teon\ §§ 24, 41,
43, 86.

tijt(d),/m. time (OE. tid), § 59.

toe, adv. to, § 6.

toe'comen, IV. happen.

toghen, wTcv. show (OS. togian,
Goth, ataugjan), § 23.

tonen, wkv. show (< toghenen).

tooch, pret. of tien.

toren, m. grief (OE. torn), § 33.

torsen, wkv. load, § 47.

tot(e), (1) prep, motion : to ; limita-
tion : to (1. 661). (2) conj. until,
§31.

trac, pret. of treken.

traghe, traech, adj. lazy, slow
(OE. trag), § 61.

traghen, wkv. tarry.

treken, IV. draw, go, § 88.

trone, m. throne, canopy, firma-
ment.

troost, m. comfort, support, § 23.

troo'stelijc, adj. comforting.

troosten, wkv. comfort.

trooster, m. comforter.

trouwe,/. faith.

trouwen, adv. in truth, faithfully.

tsamen = samen, § 28.

tusschen, ^jre^J. between, § 19.

twee, two, §§ 23, 80.

twelf, twelve, § 80.

twien, wkv. impers. doubt (OE.
tweon), § 24.

twivel, m. doubt.

twivelen, wkv. w. g. doubt.

twi-veling(h)e,/ uncertainty.

u

u, per&.j^on. dap. of du, § 70.

ure, /. hour, § 20.

ute, \ryxtyprep. adv. out of, out, §§ 6,

31.
u'tedoen, wkv. take off.
u'tegaen, VII. go out.

BEATEIJS

u'telesen, V. select.
uten, uter = uut den, der, § 40.
u'tesceppen, VII. scoop,
u'tetien, II. take off.
uutvercoren, adj. chosen.
uw(e), u, 2poss.pron. your (OLFr.
iuwa, OE. eower), § 73.

vader, m. father, § 54.

vaec, m. drowsiness.

vaen,VII. catch (OE./ow), §§ 27,

91, 92.
vaer, m. fear.
vaert(d), fm. journey (OE. fierd),

§16.
van, prep, motion : away from (1.

311); time (starting-point): from

(1. 147) ; agent (with passive) :

by ; belonging : of ; origin : from,

out of ; relation : concerning, re-
garding,
vanden, wkv. visit (OE. fandian).
vant(d), pret. of vinden.
vanghen = vaen, §§91, 92.
varen, VI. fare, go, travel, §§ 12, 90.
vasten, wkv. fast,
vel,^. skin, fur (OE./^W)-
vele, n. much; adj. many; adv.

(especially before comparatives)

much, §§ 68, 79g.
velen, IV. recommend. Gode

volen, in God's keeping (OE.

feolan), §§ 41, 87 note 1, 88.
velt(d), n. field, § 42 note.
ve'nsterkijn, n. little window, §§ 5,

6, 42 note,
ver-, § 6.

verbeiden, whv. w.g. await.
verberghen. III. hide, conceal,

§87.
verbidden, V. pray urgently (1.

783), save by prayer (1. 675).
verbouden, wkv. embolden ; refi.

take courage, § 17.
verdi'nghen. III. plead (dinghen)

one's cause so well that he is

acquitted,
verdoemen, wkv. condemn, curse

{0^. fordeman).
verdriet, n. sorrow (cf. OE.J?reotan

vb.), § 23.
verdriven, I. expel (O'E.fordnfan).
vergaen, VII. happen.

vergheten, V. w. g. forget, § 89.

vergheven, V. forgive.

verghinc(g), pret. of vergaen.

vergier (g = dg), m. orchard, § 5.

vergronden, wkv. fathom.

verhelen, IV. hide, conceal (OE.
helan).

verhoghen, wkv. intrans. rejoice j
trans, make glad, § 14.

verkieaen. III. choose, §§ 23, 43, 86.

verclaren, wkv. become clear.

vercochte, pret. of vercopen.

vercoos, pret. of verkiesen.

vercopen, wkv, sell, § 97.

vercoren, adj. chosen, excellent
(orig. p.p. of verkiesen), § 43.

verladen, VI. overburden, § 90.

verlaten, VII. 7'efi. rely upon (to
or op), § 91.

verlenen,' wkv. lend, grant (OB.
Idenan), § 23.

verlies, nm. loss.

verliesen, II. lose (OE. forleosan)^
§§ 23, 43, 86.

verloossen, wkv. release, save, § 42.

verloren, p.p. of verliesen, § 43.

vermanen, wkv. urge, beseech.

vermonden, wkv. tell, communi-
cate.

vememen, IV. notice, observe, in-
quire.

vernoy, n. annoyance, distress.

vemoyen, wkv. annoy.

veronnen, pret. pres. find fault
with, blame, § 101.

verre, adv. far.

verscuven, II. repel (OE. forsm-
fan), § 86.

versien, V. notice.

versmoren, wkv. smother (OE.
forsmorian), § 7.

versochten, wkv. heave a deep
sigh.

verstaen, VI. understand, hear.

verstoet(d), pret. of verstaen.

ver tar en = verteren, § 15.

vertel(l)en, wkv. narrate.

verte'ren, vertaren, wkv. consume
(cogn. w. OE. teran), § 15.

vertoghen, wkv. show.

vertrecken, tvkv. narrate.

verva'luen, wkv. fade, become fal-
low, § 33.

ververen, wkv. frighten ; re/l. fear,
§ 21 note.

GLOSSARY

93

vervroyen, wkv. gladden ; rejl. re-
joice, § 25.

verwandelen, wkv. change.

verwaten, VII. curse, § 91.

verweent(d), adj. luxurious, wan-
ton, splendid.

verwecken, wkv. awake, arouse
(OE. w§ccan).

verwerven. III. obtain (OE. hweor-
fan).

verwijt, nm. reproach, disgrace
(cf. OE. edwit).

vieTtien, fourteen.

vij'fhondert(d), five hundred, §§ 46,
80.

vinden. III. find, §§ 83, 87.

vi'ngherlyn, n. ring.

vinc(g), pret. of vanghen, § 92.

vinken = vine en, § 40.

vinstu, § 38.

visente'ren, wkv. visit, § 46.

vita, /. life-story (Lat. vita).

vlamme,/. fiame.

vleesclieljjc, adj. fleshly, carnal,
§23.

vlijt, m. eagerness, zeal (cf. OE.
JiUan).

voe'deren, wkv. line (cf. OE. fo-
/)or, n.).

voeghen, wkv. suit.

voeren, voren, wkv. lead, conduct,
carry {OE.feran).

voet, m. foot.

voghel, m. bird (O'E.fugol).

volghen, wkv. follow.

volco'melijc, adv. perfectly, en-
tirely.

volmae'ct, adj. perfect.

vore, voor, vor, (1) pt^ep. of place :
in front of, before (11. 97, 102,
203, 552) ; time : vore midder-
nacht (1. 193), before midnight ;
order : voor alle man (1. 370),
first of all men ; causal : in be-
half of, for the sake of: bidt
vore mi (1. 439). (2) adv. of
place : in front (1. 224) ; time :
beforehand (1. 506), § 31.
voren^, adv. before, te voren (1.
840), before, previously. In com-
bination with vbs. : te voren
comen (11. 724, 737), appear ; (te)
voren legghen (11. 364, 378),
propose, §§ 6, 7.

voren*

voeren.

vorme,/. form, shape.

vo'rsprake, /. mediator.

vort, voort,ac?v. of place : forwards,

on ; of time : further, henceforth.

voort meer (1. 910), henceforth

(OE.forJ^), §§ 7, 16.
vrame,/. advantage.
vremde, vremt(d), adj, foreign

{OE. frem{e)de,fremj?e), § 12.
vrese,/. fear (cogn. w. OE.frdsian,

♦tempt'), §23.
vri, adj. free, noble ; a stock epi-
thet of the Virgin Mary (1. 535),

§27.
vrien, wkv. free (OE.freogan), § 27.
vriendelike, adv. kindly,
vriendi'nne, /. friend, § 6.
vrient(d), m. friend, § 24.
vroe, adv. early, § 8.
vroet(d), adj. wise (OE. /rod).
vro(o), adj. glad, § 8.
vroude,/.joy, §26.
vrouwe, / woman, lady, mistress

(cogn. w. OE. frea), § 26.
vullen, wkv. fill {OE. fyllan), §§ 13,

93.
vysioe'n, n. vision, § 6.

W

wachte, /. watch, watchfulness,
wachte nemen w.g. (1. 148),
look out for.

wachten, tvkv. tv. g. wait for.

waen, m. expectation, doubt. Bon-
der waen, doubtless (OE. wen).

waer^ (1) adj. true, in ware dine
(1. 833), in truth, faithfully. (2)
n. truth, over waer (11. 30, 455,
476), for ti-uth. ghi segt waer
(1. 950), you are right.

waer^, adv. where. In combination
with prepp. and advv. : waer bi
(1. 586), on what ground ? waer
omme (11. 240, 248), why, § 41.

waerde = werde.

waerheide, /. truth, § 58.

waerlike, adv. verily, truly.

-waert,-wert(d),a(?t?. tenclooster
waert (1. 788), towards the con-
vent, ter Stat wert (1. 164), to-
wards the town, derwaert (1.
245), thither ; werwaert (1.146),
whither, §§ 15 note, 16.

waest = was et, § 11.

94

BEATEIJS

waken, wkv. be awake, keep watch

(OE. wacian).
wale = wel.
wan, pret. of winnen.
wandelen, whv. trans, alter,
wanderen, wkv. go, walk,
wanen, wkv. think, expect (OE.

wenan), § 21.
wa'nhope,/. despair, § 6.
wane, m. hesitation, doubt (cf. OE.

wanc-ol, adj.).
want, conj. for, as.
warde = werde.
ware,/, care (OE. waru).
warp, pret. of worpen.
wart{d\ pret. of werden.
w^as, war en, pret. of wesen.
wat, pron. interr. ntr. what, often

followed by 2i gp. : in wat lande

(1. 595) ; indef. whatsoever (1. 55) :

in wat leven ic noy[t] was

(1. 527), § 77.
wech(g), adv. away, § 29. ^
wedde, n. pledge, possession (OE.

wp^dd), § 12.
weder^, adv. again, anew, back,
weder^, conj. whether, weder —

ofte (1. 47), whether — or ; weder

— no (11. 656, 952), neither — nor,

§41.
we'dernioet(d), m. despair (OE.

wijyermod), § 6.
we*dertale, /. answer (OE. tviper-

talu).
we'duwe,/. widow, §^ 10, 33.
wee, (1) n. woe, pain ; (2) adv.

sadly, mi es wee (1. Ill), I am

sad, § 23.
weeG,pret. of wiken.
we(e)lde,/. bliss (M.E. welthe).
ween, m. wailing, grief (ci. OE.

wdnian), § 23.
weke,/. week, § 10.
wel, wale, adv. well, greatly ; n.

weal, bliss.
wecken, wkv. arouse (OE. w§ccan),

§93.
wenden, wkv. go (OE. wendan).
wenen, wkv. weep (OE. wdnian),

§23.
werde, warde, waerde, /. worth,

value, price, treasure, §§ 15, 16.
werden. III, become, be (as an

auxiliary of the passive voice)

(OE. iveorJ?an), §§ 81, 83, 87.

werdech(g), adj. worthy.
w^erelt(d),/. world, mankind,
werf, /. (course of) time (OE.

hwearf, ' exchange '), §§ 15, 41.
werk, n. work,
werken, wkv. work, § 97.
werwaert(d), adv. whither.
wes, gs. of wie, wat.
wese, m. orphan, § 23.
wesen, V. be. Used as a noun:

being (1. 209), §§ 89, 106.
west, adv. westward.
weten, pret.pres. know (OE. wdt)j

§§ 10, 23, 99.
wi(e), pi. of ic, we, § 70.
wide, adv. wide, far.
wie, pron. interr. who ? relat. who ;

indef. whosoever, § 77.
wijf, n. woman (OE. wTf, n.), § 21.
wijn, m. wine, § 5.
wijs, adj. wise.
wiken, I. recede, fly, § 85.
wile^/. veil (Lat. velum), § 20.
wile^ /. space of time, while, § 41.
wilen, adv. whilom,
willemij-n, m. a member of the

monastic order of St. William

founded by Pope Callixtus II.
willen, wkv. will, wish, want to,

§ 107.
winnen. III. win, gain, earn, be-
get, § 87.
wise,/, manner, way (OE. wls(e)),
wiselike, adv. wisely,
wiste, pret. of weten, § 99.
wit, adj. white; sb. met witten

gheeleet, clad in white (1. 934),

§§ 22 note, 41.
wonden, wkv. wound, § 9.
wonder, adj. strange, marvellous,

§9.
wonder, n. wonder, miracle,
worpen. III. throw (OE. weorpan),

§§ 15, 87.
wo(o)rt(d), n. word, §§ 7, 16, 52.
woude, pret. of willen.
wreken, IV. avenge (OE. wrecan).
wulle,/. wool, § 13 note 1.
wullen, adj. woollen, clad in a

woollen cloak, § 13.

yemen, yet = iemen, iet.
Z = S

GLOSSARY

95

PROPER NAMES

A-bsolon (1. 372).
Be'atrijs (1. 1029).
Elve, the Elbe (1. 611).
Qero'nde, the Gironde (1. 611), § 5.
Ghy-sbrecht, Gilbert (OE. Gisl-

heorht) (1. 14), § 47.
Gi'semast, Gesmas, the penitent

thief on the cross (1. 654), § 5.

La-zarus (1. 218), § 60.

Mari-a, §§ 27, 60.

Na-zaret (1. 543).

Rome (1. 785).

Teo-phulus, Theophilus (1. 519).

Venus (11. 125, 366).

OXFORD: HORACE HART M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

f

RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
TO"^ 202 Main Library

LOAN PERIOD 1
HOME USE

2 :

3

4

5 (

b

ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS

Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date.

Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405

DUE AS STAMPED BELOW

i

CiRCi.

FFR 2 7 IQQfi

B A k 1 A O ^n

\\ Ci

JAN / Z 19

39

SENT ON ILL

NOV 1 S ZUU6

U.C. BhKKELEY

FORM NO. DD6

UNIVERSITY OF CAl
BERKELEY,

.IFORNIA, BERKELEY

CA 94720

(H)$

U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES

CQ2111t>1.3D

^^W

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY